Director Margaret Ann Brady’s LAUGHING WILD (@ Club Café
through August 1st) is just the wild and wooly production you need
for Christopher Durang’s off the wall mono- and dialogues. Hub Theatre’s roller
coaster ride is indeed a summer treat.
Durang’s l980s comedy is surprisingly prescient: for his
predictions about global warming and handgun violence, right down to his utter
disdain for teenagers from the Jersey
Shore! Lauren Elias is a hoot
as the beleaguered young woman for whom life is endlessly fraught. She just
wants to get through the day without incident but trouble seeks her out (or she
seeks it out if it’s late in arriving) even in the tuna fish aisle.
Robert Orzalli is hilarious, you guessed it, as the
unfortunate man standing in front of the tuna section when she goes shopping.
Elias gets lots of laughs as she shrieks and wails over the “severest of woes”
that assail her at every turn—while
Orzalli’s character tries his best to center himself (zen style), extracting
bad thoughts with patient hands, only to have them snap back into his brain.
Poor man, none of his affirmations succeed in ridding him of his negativity. (Thank
heavens because that’s the grist for Orzalli’s comic tour de force.)
All Hub shows are Pay-What-You-Can. If they charged by the
laugh, only The Donald could afford a ticket. As it stands, they’re priceless!
