Black comedy, social satire mix in ‘Maggie’

Tom Titus

You might not expect a play titled “The Day Maggie Blew Her Head

Off” to be a barrel of laughs, but this new offering at UC Irvine

isn’t the absolute downer the title might suggest.

On the contrary, Amy Bridges’ award-winning indictment of women’s

struggles in society is one of those rare birds in the theater -- a

message play wrapped in farcical clothing. Issues are addressed via

outlandish interpretation in an exceedingly funny production of a

provocative but somewhat incomplete script.

Director T.K. Pond pulls out all the physical and stereotypical

stops in her colorful and crazily compelling production, while

raising questions in her somber program notes on topics up to and

including the meaning of life. This mixture of soul searching and

slapstick culminates in an uneven but entertaining evening.

When first we encounter Maggie (wonderfully portrayed by Mandy

Schmieder), she’s already done the deed alluded to in the title and

has arrived in heaven to face a final judgment that more resembles

the Mad Hatter’s tea party than a celestial courtroom. What follows

are flashbacks from her life, ostensibly explaining what drove her to

suicide, but offering little of substance in that regard.

Schmieder, purposely dressed down and rendered plain-looking,

skillfully wrestles with the trauma of youth and adolescence, as a

girl who doesn’t quite fit in with the others. Her ambition is to

become Miss America, but the cards of life seem stacked against her.

Episodes from her school days, her courtship and her experience

with Weight Watchers dot the play’s first act, but it’s her

relationship with her embittered mother (savagely played by Amanda

Loomer) that really sets her off on a self-destructive path. There’s

also a richly constructed sequence in which she keeps her panting

boyfriend (P.J. Wagner) at bay, saving herself for marriage.

The Weight Watchers ladies are particularly effective. UCI will

sorely miss Lisa Clayton when she graduates and goes on to Broadway.

This perennial showstopper renders a hilariously pungent monologue

calculated to garner exit applause nightly, and Marie Wong excels as

the touchy-feely leader of the pack.

Wagner effectively presents two contrasting faces of the male

gender, tender and understanding before marriage and a beer-guzzling

lout afterward. He grapples with issues also -- a revered mother and

a hated father, both now dead -- in an extended diatribe that does

little to further the plot.

The heavenly hosts are a motley trio -- Daren Herbert, Justin C.

Lujan and Sam Laakso dispense justice with heavy hands and insinuate

themselves into the flashback stories, as well. Christopher Trice

plays a scroungy caveman whose true identity is reserved for a

late-play surprise.

The diminutive Lisa Schwartz waltzes through a pair of cutesy

characters, a popular cheerleader and Maggie’s alter ego. Wagner

doubles as the decrepit Lazurus in heaven, while Martin Giannini is a

sage Solomon reduced to waiter duty in the afterlife.

While Maggie’s life certainly isn’t a bed of roses, the events

that transpire hardly qualify as motives for her drastic choice.

Playwright Bridges fails to establish the “last straw” that drives

her protagonist over the edge, and the play’s final moment seems

strangely anticlimactic.

Farce and message are pretty much oil and water in the theater,

but Pond’s production of “The Day Maggie Blew Her Head Off” comes

mighty close to mixing them effectively.

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

reviews appear Thursdays and Saturdays.