Just saw two shows at the end of their runs this past
weekend, both linked by “wit in the face of adversity,” that adversity being
Death: One, a bittersweet character study, the other a delightful romp. One,
FREUD’S LAST SESSION, is really a debate over the existence of God (camouflaged
with clever conversation and gentle humor). The other, END OF THE WORLD, A
COMEDY IN TWO ACTS, is a cheeky musing on catastrophe: The earth is about to
exit the Milky Way via a big bang from an asteroid. (The populace behaves
badly.)
Mark St.
Germain’s talky two-hander finds the literary scholar C.S. Lewis at Sigmund
Freud’s door, not knowing how he will be received, having just satirized the
father of psychoanalysis in print. Freud is glad for the diversion to “short
circuit” the excruciating pain he suffers from oral cancer. He’ll be dead
within the year. St. Germain might have made his play a vitriolic or even a
cathartic exercise. Thankfully he didn’t. He staves off gloom and doom with
pleasant repartee, like Lewis’ quip about religion: “The great problem of
Christianity is the Christians.”
Director Jim Petosa is blessed with two fine actors to bring
these icons to life on the New Rep stage. Joel Colodner makes Freud not nearly
as pompous as we imagine he would be and Shelley Bolman makes the Christian
apologist surprisingly accommodating and exceedingly kind. We’re left thinking
that had time and fate allowed, they might have been friends.
Elizabeth Dupre’s hilarious END OF THE WORLD (@ Boston Actors
Theater) finds a wacky bunch of scientists at odds with a plummeting asteroid
and, if that weren’t enough, with two meddling government officials who insist
on hovering about and making their lives difficult. What’s more, their repeated
efforts to knock the “near earth object” off course are a crashing failure… But
Dupre isn’t so much interested in a typical apocalyptic scenario as she is in screwball
comedy, arriving in a satirical vehicle with sweet romance in its trajectory.
It reminded me of THE AWFUL TRUTH or any of Preston Sturges’ wooly scripts.
The banter is smart, hip and brimming with delicious topical,
not to mention theoretical allusions. Director Drew Jacobs’ cast hits the mark
squarely, with a nicely nuanced performance by Rebecca Strong as the bright
lead scientist with a secret. Alex Jacobs personifies British cool as he
supplies the quips and quarks that keep them coursing on.
Elizabeth Battey delivers her prankster role like it was
mother’s milk and Bailey Libby nails that vacuous look that only television
reporters can summon up at will (and she gets to own another funny, “aghast”
face later). David Anderson makes those badge-sporting secret service operators
look sedated next to his red-faced, four alarm attitude (made even more
hysterical when he curls himself into a ball). Laurie Singletary’s over-the-top,
take-no-guff agent is a veritable insurgence of female power to rival any man’s
army. In short, Dupre’s fresh, wildly amusing take on death and destruction
puts her on my list of favorite local playwrights.