Clownfish
Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
Theatre of NOTE
Thru August 6
In comedy, silly plots are easily forgiven if the writing is witty or insightful, or if one or more performers is so engaging that other shortcomings can be overlooked. With Clownfish, Theatre of NOTE’s premiere production following the hiatus of the pandemic, none of this is so
Written by Amy Dellagiarino, the play takes place in an isolated cabin on the top of a mountain near Denver in the middle of winter. A wedding party has gathered to prepare for the wedding of Katie (Mara Shuster-Lefkowitz), a woman with a “wild” past, and Jake (Omari Williams), a conventional guy who has planned the event and who’s chosen this inauspicious locale because, well, it’s cheap. Outside the air is bitter cold, with snow drifts piling up, so you suspect from the start that Jake may come to regret his choice.
One of the bridesmaids, Erica (Susan Louise O’Connor), has recently suffered a nervous breakdown, and her emotional state is cause for concern among the others, who worry (Jake especially) that a chance remark may set her off. But despite her presumed fragility, Erica works diligently at her assigned task, struggling to put together a makeshift chandelier that Katie has requested be part of the décor. Her dedication is in marked contrast to the work ethic of her friend and old college chum, Cassie (Jamila Webb), a gal with attitude who sits by idly and watches Erica work.
In addition to the bride and groom, the other members of the party include Hunter (Joe Mahon), Jake’s best man, and Tod (Sean Michael Boozer) a late arrival who claims expertise in a variety of fields, such as CPR and ghost hunting. Appearing even later is the mysterious Ralph (Bill Voorhees). No one knows who Ralph is, exactly, but he proves helpful when the cabin door jams and everyone else is trapped within.
According to the press release, Clownfish is “a dark comedy about mental illness, social stigmas, and the misguided desire to be ‘normal’.” This is a description I find intriguing, and presumably so would anyone else with empathy for what it’s like to be treated as a marginalized and somehow socially unacceptable person.
But Clownfish doesn’t explore this kind of circumstance in detail. It gives few specifics about the whys and wherefores of Erica’s past distress —only indeterminate references to a fire she may have set and her own vague account (very late in the play) of feelings of angst. The main purpose of this plot thread — by no means the overriding one, it turns out — is to provide fodder for a comedic riff that gets old fast.
In fact, the character of Erica soon becomes sidelined as other longish running gags — the antagonism between Cassie and Tod, the fondness of the bride for champagne and the groom for abstinence, and the possible presence of ghosts — take more center stage. The business of everyone being spooked by a “haunted” cabin struck me as especially clichéd.
Directed by Laura Stribling, the production’s most saving grace is O’Connor’s truthful performance as a woman putting herself back together after a painful episode in her life and doing her best to fend off the annoying over-solicitousness of the company around her. O’Connor’s focus holds steady throughout, despite the weak support she gets from the script. On the other hand, Shuster-Lefkowitz tackles the role of the obstreperous champagne-swilling Katie with way too much boisterous enthusiasm. She needs to pull back and search for some common internal reality between herself and the character.
As the controlling, over-anxious Jake, Williams displays a timing and comic presence better suited to broader satire. Boozer presents a convincing-enough doofus, but his character is tasked with repetitive riffs. Mahon’s Hunter is a guy who observes and reacts, and the performance is convincing. As the cavalier Cassie, a disdainful, churlish-tongued individual, Webb needs a directorial assist; this is one of the script’s more developed roles, and the actor underplays.
Scenic designer Bill Voorhees has fashioned an appealing rustic interior, with a replica of a fish on the back wall that engenders discussion at various points in the play. It’s eventually determined that this is a clownfish, not a trout or some other species — hence (I guess) the play’s title.
Theatre of NOTE, 1517 N Cahuenga Blvd, Hollywood. Thurs.-Sat., 8 pm, Sun., 7 pm, no performance on Sat., July 30; thru Aug. 6. www.theatreofnote.com. Running time: approximately 80 minutes with no intermission.
