'Durang/Durang' Mash-Up Comedy in Cambridge

Durang/Durang: A Mash-Up of Six One Act Plays by Christopher Durang

Director, Steve Kleinedler; Assistant Director, Jenny Reagan; Stage Manager, Justin Silverman; Lighting Designer, Michael Clark Wonson; Scenic Designer, Kristin Williams; Costume Designer, Lindsay Gonzales; Sound Designer, Jane Bulnes-Fowles; Original Music Coordinator, Lauren K. Terry

Featuring: Shelley Brown, Mike Budwey, Mack Carroll, Erin Willliam Gilligan, Jenny Gutbezahl, Julie Jarvis, Sheryl Johns, Silas Janzen Lohrenz, Joe O'Connor, Heather Peterson, Lena Raff, Chelsea Schmidt, Jonathan Braedley Welch

Performances through December 12 at Bad Habit Productions, The Durrell Theatre at the Cambridge YMCA, 820 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge   Tickets $15 online at www.badhabitproductions.org or $20 at the door; "Pay what you can" on Wednesday, December 9 @ 8 pm

Bad Habit Productions has only five performances remaining for your opportunity to experience the comic genius of playwright Christopher Durang at the Durrell Theatre at the Cambridge YMCA. A flexible cast of thirteen actors plays thirty-one diverse characters in Durang/Durang, a mash up of six one act plays (shouldn't it be called Durang/Durang/Durang/Durang/Durang/Durang?). Known for his broad range of satire, dark comedy, parody, and absurdism, Durang does not disappoint with his clever wordplay and bizarre plot twists in these six short plays.

Bad Habit and Director Steve Kleinedler do not falter in their madcap take on Durang's work. It appears that much time and great care have been put into the staging as each and every character is differentiated, even in the case of one actor (Mike Budwey) playing two sides of the same man simultaneously.  In Sty of The Eye, Durang's send up of Sam Shepard, another great American playwright, he includes a mélange of themes, among them spousal abuse, incest, and symbolism, and works in Shepard's preoccupation with the myth of the vanishing West.

Shelley Brown opens the festivities as she addresses the audience about drama and theatre in the introductory piece Mrs. Sorken. After reminding everyone to turn off their cell phones, she elaborates on the Greek roots of theatre and compares the importance of art for humans to the importance of light for plants. Brown combines sincerity and a kind of ditzy intelligence with sadness to create a sympathetic character. When she returns as Ma in Sty of The Eye, she is at the opposite end of the socioeconomic spectrum and not too smart, but Brown has a field day with the part.

The more familiar play that receives Durang's treatment is Tennessee Williams' classic, The Glass Menagerie. In this fractured version entitled For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls, the disabled daughter who collects glass animals is replaced by a hypochondriac son (Silas Janzen Lohrenz) who collects (and names) colored glass swizzle sticks. The brutish older brother (Jonathan Braedley Welch) brings home a female caller from his workplace, but it isn't a match made in heaven. Chelsea Schmidt chews the scenery as the inappropriate date who is hearing challenged, and in her dialogue with Sheryl Johns as Amanda, they could give Abbott and Costello (Who's On First?) a run for their money.

Johns also stands out as the ex-girlfriend from hell in Wanda's Visit in the second act. Julie Jarvis and Joseph O'Connor convincingly play the couple she descends upon, going back and forth between trying to be good hosts and emotionally unraveling as Wanda insinuates herself into every nook and cranny of their lives. Heather Peterson gives an over-the-top performance as the title character in Nina in the Morning, about a self-absorbed mother of three (all colorfully played by Mack Carroll) who is in crisis over her falling facelift.

In the final offering, Business Lunch at The Russian Tea Room, Peterson is also featured prominently as an obnoxious Hollywood power broker trying to convince a laid-back writer (Erin William Gilligan) to create a script about a priest and a rabbi having a love affair. Jenny Gutbezahl plays a rude waiter who makes the Durgin Park staff look like angels, and Brown reappears as the writer's agent, trying to cajole him to take the job despite the fact that he'd rather just fold his laundry. It is a scathing view of the way that story ideas germinate and films get made, but there are more laughs than all the tea in...Russia?

Bad Habit may be a synonym for low budget, but how much do swizzle sticks cost? The limited props (Julie Brown, designer) are deployed effectively and some sheer curtains serve as a variety of backdrops, creatively lit by Michael Clark Wonson. Lindsay Gonzales has a flair for adding detail and nuance to the characters' personalities in the way she costumes them. For example, she drapes the willowy Peterson in the fanciest designs and dresses Wanda as a colorful nut job. Bad Habit's Community Aspect program creates opportunities for exposure for Boston area artists and sound designer Jane Bulnes-Fowles employs the original music of about a dozen local artists to lay down a foundation appropriate for each play.

Durang/Durang was my first exposure to the playwright's work, but I hope it won't be the last. His clever wordplay and irreverence are exactly the kind of entertainment I enjoy and Bad Habit really puts it across. If you think you know Tennessee Williams and Sam Shepard, open yourself to a new way of looking at them. Unexpected things happen and, like Nina, you might laugh your face off.