(Bob Turton Photography)
Reviewed by Lovell Estell III
The Actors’ Gang
Through June 20
Kate Mulligan and JR Reed (Bob Turton Photography)
While this dark funny, Cold War era satire by Swiss playwright Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921-1990), is seldom produced, it remains oddly relevant at a time when the reality of nuclear extinction is still very much with us, and armed conflicts driven by misguided technology and the destructive hubris of governments are killing more people every passing hour.
With a nod to the madness of the era, the play is set appropriately enough in the comfortable drawing room of a sanatorium. The inmates that the plot is chiefly concerned with are luminaries of science: Albert Einstein (Pierre Adeli), aka. Ernst Heinrich Ernesti, who loves to play the violin; Isacc Newton (Brian T. Finney), aka. Herbert Georg Beutler, a garrulous aesthete. and longtime resident Johann Wilhelm Möbius (Vincent Foster), who believes he is in contact with King Solomon’s ghost.
These three fellows are quite crazy (or are they?) yet have comfortably settled into their routine existence at the asylum, which is under the supervision of the steadfastly creepy, hunchbacked, duck-waddling Dr. Mathilde Von Zahnd (the hilarious Kate Mulligan).
Despite her efficiency at controlling life at the asylum, she seems to be clueless about a murder that took place on the premises, which brings in the bumbling Detective Richard Voss (J.R. Reed) and his cohorts to solve. Nothing is as it seems in this nuthouse.
The plot goes through some humorous changes: Some of them work, while others don’t make the play funnier or more accessible. The problem here is not with the acting so much as a script that grows too heavy with pointless dialogue (less-than-astute pacing by director Brent Hinkley doesn’t help), in particular during Act II. This takes away a lot from the sturdy comic foundation built up in Act I.
But it is also during the second act that the playwright essays important philosophical and moral issues like the moral responsibility of science and scientists, the meaning of freedom, and the moral and ethical boundaries of scientific invention.
The performances are spirited under Hinkley’s direction (Mulligan is a gem). Kudos to David Robbins for great sound and music design.
The Actor’s Gang, 9070 Venice Blvd., Culver City: Thurs-Sat. 8 pm, Sun., May 31 and June 7 2 pm; thru June 20. Running time: two hours and 10 minutes with an intermission. https://theactorsgang.com
