Review: The Outrageous Adult Comedy MYTH OF THE OSTRICH is Brimming with a Bevy of Belly Laughs

January in St Louis theater is providing a lot of laughs. The Rep is delighting audiences with Mrs Krishnan’s Dinner. The widows are dancing at The Black Rep in Sam-Art Williams funny black comedy, and Upstream Theater has just opened what may be the funniest production of the new year with Myth of the Ostrich.

Matt Murray’s outrageous play examines would happen if Leave It to Beaver’s pearl-clutching June Cleaver spent an afternoon with One Day at a Time’s mouthy liberal feminist Ann Romano.

Murray, a Toronto based playwright started his career acting before transitioning to playwriting. In addition to penning Myth of the Ostrich, his recent collaborations include work as book writer and lyricist on the original musicals Grow and Maggie.

Murray’s comedy Myth of the Ostrich is a fish out of water story that blends Neil Simon’s Odd Couple with the ridiculous adult humor of a Judd Apatow or Seth Rogen movie.

In Myth of the Ostrich a prim, proper, buttoned-up midwestern housewife, Pam (Jennelle Gilreath Owens), makes an uninvited visit to meet Holly, the mother of her son’s friend. The naïvely innocent Catholic Wisconsin woman’s Apple cart is flipped as she faces a multitude of truths while gaining a few new experiences along the way. Her belief system gets rocked to its core.

Holly (Wendy Renée Greenwood) is a foul-mouthed Bostonian. She is the Oscar Madison to Pam’s Felix Unger. Like Oscar, Holly is a writer who focuses more on her work than keeping a tidy home. She’s gruff with a stereotypical eastern attitude. As a parent she is a bit more clued in than the unknowing Pam.

Cheryl (Pamela Reckamp), Holly’s crude friend, arrives shortly after Pam. She burst into the house sharing a story that makes Pam’s toenails curl. Cheryl is unapologetically brash. Her outrageous overt vulgarity almost makes the F-bomb dropping Holly seem nun-like.

Greenwood, Owens, and Reckamp nail their caricature-like portrayals. Each of the trio give fully committed comedic performances dripping in absurdity, courage, emotion, physicality, and vocalization.

Owen’s Pam and Reckamp’s Cheryl are scene stealers. Pam is earnest and vulnerable while Cheryl is uninhibited and lowbrow. The two clown while Greenwood’s Holly plays it straight. Her subtle reactions earn just as many laughs as the other two’s zany folly.

Credit director Jane Paradise and dialect coach Lauren Roth for guiding their actors and helping them create over-the-top characters with exaggerated accents. Owen’s polite upper Midwest long-voweled delivery is the perfect juxtaposition to Greenwood and Reckamp’s fast quipping, sharp eastern-speak. The contrast adds to the hilarity and enhances Pam’s guileless conviction.

Paradise brings Murray’s farcical play from page to stage with uproarious flair. She empowers her actors to embrace the absurdity and enhances their portrayal with imaginative design collaboration in lighting, sound, and costuming.

Denisse Chavez and Ellie Schwetye’s lighting and sound design heighten the comedy with their bold technical choices. Michele Friedman Siler perfectly compliments the characters with costumes that personify the stuffy Pam, the sloppy Holly, and the devil-may-care Cheryl. The designer’s work is a grand example of how production aesthetics come together to elevate storytelling.

Myth of the Ostrich is brazen comedy. It’s among the most accessibly entertaining productions staged at Upstream Theater in recent years. It is full of artfully crafted irreverent portrayals, expert direction, and a bevy of belly laughs.

Upstream Theater’s production of Myth of the Ostrich continues through February 8, 2026. Visit upstreamtheater.org for more information. Tickets are available at Metrotix.com.

PHOTO CREDIT: Patrick Huber