Theater Review

Tom Titus

It’s difficult to mentally connect the urbane comedy of Neil Simon

with the bucolic silliness of “Fools.” Even on the third or fourth

viewing, the two entities are as serendipitous as a fish on a bicycle.

Nevertheless, Simon did indeed create this Russian fable about a

village under a 200-year curse of stupidity, and the determined

schoolmaster striving to lift it. And local community theater groups

continue to find nuggets of comic gold buried beneath its surface.

The latest company to venture into this simple Simon play is Costa

Mesa’s new Trilogy Playhouse, which is generating a good deal of laughter

from this meager comedy under the direction of Alicia Butler. Credit a

cast dedicated to projecting abject stupidity, altogether

unself-conscious, for the success the production enjoys.

Butler has double cast four roles, and when one quartet is not

performing, their duties are warming up the audience before the show and

at intermission, enacting the vacuous villagers as background characters.

It’s an interesting, and effective device.

At Sunday’s performance, the central role of the harried teacher

working feverishly to open the mind of his beloved was taken by James

Mulligan -- who, in addition to being one of the company’s leading

actors, also designs the settings, in this case quite handsomely.

Mulligan gives a yeoman-like effort as the only intelligent being

among a coterie of imbeciles, sharing his frustrations in pithy asides to

the audience. The object of his affection, on this evening, was Leigh Ann

Hubbard, who renders a marvelously vacant characterization masking a

seductive charm.

John Townsend and Sharon Simonian, the other alternately cast actors,

impress as Hubbard’s eager-to-please parents, yearning for a smidgen of

knowledge and ecstatic at their daughter’s minor accomplishments (such as

choosing the correct door to exit through).

Two supporting performances stand out for their richly exuberant

interpretations. Karin Lindberg Freda is marvelous as the bumbling

postmistress and Sara Ann Walker is stooped as well as stupid as the

shrewd peddler who sells flowers as fish.

Scott Narver rolls his eyes impressively as a clueless shepherd who

has lost his first name as well as his sheep. George Pelham is a suitably

sonorous magistrate and Sergei Sage is effective as the town butcher --

and invaluable to the cast as a Russian dialect coach.

The heavy in the piece -- piqued because the audience prefers his

rival -- is smoothly enacted by Jack Warner, almost too smoothly since

his clever reactions often are at odds with his supposed stupidity.

The other four leading actors -- Christopher Aruffo, Karen Chapin,

Richard Freda and Sharon Schwanz -- function nicely on alternate evenings

as atmospheric characters. Their interaction with the audience has the

effect of loosening up the viewer for this strange exercise in Simonized

silliness.

Mulligan’s scenic designs give the impression of depth and detail, and

the costumes (uncredited) are equally effective in conveying rustic

Russia.

Simon’s “Fools” may not be “The Odd Couple” or “Rumors,” being an

acquired taste and light years from the playwright’s usual bailiwick. Yet

the Trilogy company brings all this foolishness center stage in a very

enjoyable production.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews appear

Thursdays and Saturdays.

WHAT: “Fools”

WHERE: Trilogy Playhouse, 2930 Bristol St., Costa Mesa

WHEN: 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays through May 14

HOW MUCH: $15 and $20

PHONE: (714) 957-3347