BWW Reviews: ASSISTED LIVING at ACT Lives Only From Assistance

A few days ago I posted a review for another comedy in town where I commented on the fact that they just don't write farces like they used to. And last night the current production at ACT, "Assisted Living" only served to support that statement. That's assuming this World Premiere play from local playwright Katie Forgette was even trying to be a farce. The show, aside from containing a very thin plot and some highly cliché jokes, suffers from an identity crisis as it's not sure what kind of show it wants to be; farce, political commentary, nostalgia piece, etc. But the show does manage some decent moments largely due to the superb cast not to mention borrowing scenes from good plays.

The story is a bleak imagining of a not too distant future where Medicare has been abolished and the elderly and infirmed are placed in government run facilities to live out their remaining years. The government uses whatever old buildings they can find for this purpose including a former prison where the residents are "cared" for by the tyrannical and bitter Nurse Claudia (Julie Briskman), her dimwitted but well meaning son Kevin (Tim Gouran) and a robotic pill dispenser named HAL. So when former actor Joe Taylor (Kurt Beattie) arrives on the scene and begins to stir up a semblance of life amongst his fellow residents Mitzi, Judy and Wally (Laura Kenny, Marianne Owen, and Jeff Steitzer), Nurse Claudia resorts to any means necessary to put a stop to it which forces the residents to come up with their own plan to retaliate.

Like I said, it's pretty cliché and very predictable with laughs being harvested from the lowest hanging fruit on the tree. You could find most of these jokes in any sitcom. And this is just me but I've never really been a fan of "isn't life awful, let's make jokes about it" humor. And if all that weren't bad enough, in order to flesh out the weak script, Forgette keeps inserting iconic moments and speeches from classic shows like "Hamlet" and "Pygmalion" in the guise of the residents putting on productions of them. A device, which just seemed a bit lazy to me and only showed the flaws of her own script in contrast to these master works. Even the final grand moment of the play, which is meant to sum up its message, is just a poem from "Spoon River Anthology".

Luckily the cast is there to tell these hackneyed one-liners and from these Seattle theater staples, anything sounds good. Briskman as the warden-esque head nurse of the facility is wonderful as the show's villain. The always-lovely Kenny could read from the phone book and I'd be happy so her turn as the slightly delusional and ever chipper Mitzi is a joy. Steitzer couldn't be funnier as the crotchety and deaf Wally. Owen and Beattie are quite sweet as the adorable pair you know will get together in the end. And Gouran is pure bliss as the ridiculous dude of an orderly who only dreams of making art.

I wish I could say better about this piece. I was so hoping for a smart show about the residents scheming and showing how much wiser they were than those that would persecute them but all of their machinations just seemed contrived and easily dropped in their laps. There were plenty of laughs coming from the audience around me and maybe it's just not my thing or maybe I was underwhelmed when compared to that other comedy in town I mentioned but all night long I kept longing for better and didn't get it.

"Assisted Living" performs at ACT through May 12^th. For tickets or information contact the ACT box office at 206-292-7676 or visit them online at www.acttheatre.org.

Photo credit: Alan Alabastro