NORMAL NOISES


If laughter is indeed the best medicine, then you’re bound to leave Normal Noises, Clara Rodriguez’s quirky sextet of “plays about real life, only more so” in the halest of health.

“Bath Day,” has middle-aged Melvin (Michael Gabiano) instructing neighbor Andrea (Melissa Bontempt) on how and when to medicate his elderly, hard-of-hearing, near catatonic live-in ex-mother-in-law Phyllis (Cheryl Crosland) while he heads off to give his three cats their daily baths, but not before warning Andrea not to, under any circumstances, answer the phone. “If it’s an out-of-state number, you pick up the receiver and then hang up again real fast. Just pick up, hang up. Got it?” (And that’s just the beginning of Melvin’s list of no-nos.)

“What’s In The Dip” introduces us to baby boomers Charlie and Mary (Lloyd Pedersen and Mareli Mitchel-Shields), who meet cute at Mary’s late mother’s funeral and exchange memories of Charlie’s now deceased childhood math teacher. “She never learned anybody’s names,” reminisces her former student. “She’d just pick something about your body and call you that. I was Rat Eyes because of my, you know, small eyes.” (Pascal Gigon completes the cast as Mary’s sister Margaret, who can’t forgive her sis for moving to Palmdale and having fun.)

“Stakeout” follows private eye Ted (Pedersen) and his 20something son Kyle (Alec Reusch) as Ted spies on his latest client’s cheating husband and Kyle agonizes over how best to text a girl he’s crushing on, and can’t for the life of him understand why Uncle Ted won’t let him drink from the bottle of Gatorade in the back seat. (“It’s a different kind of liquid,” say the stakeout detective, who doesn’t always have access to a bathroom. “Not something you want to drink.”)

It’s Meet The Parents time for Emily (Sascha Vanderslik), who’s getting introduced to her fiancé Drew’s (Reusch) folks in “Balls!”, featuring Mitchel-Shields and Gabiano as Mom and Dad Carol and Steve, the former of whom has been “into Swedish culture” ever since discovering Ikea, waxes poetic about her couch (“It’s an Ektorp”), and would like nothing better than for Drew and his pregnant gf to name their first-born Sven because “it means ‘boy” in Swedish!” (And wait till you hear whose humongous baby balls “Balls!” is about.)

The sight of a mysterious prowler prompts Beverly (Cynthia Bryant) to summon Chad (Neil Thompson) to her house in “Security,” and not just any mysterious prowler. He looked “kind of like my high-school English teacher,” she tells Chad, and when asked to be a little more specific, she amends her description by adding, “Mr. Bosworth,” and when Chad tells her that’s not what he meant, she apologizes and adds, “East Jefferson High School.”

Completing the evening’s entertainment is “Ripped Off,” in which Millie (Bontempt) finds herself cross-examined by defense attorney Smiley (Thompson) about a Cuisinart Easy-Pop popcorn maker that went into a Walmart dressing room with her and then seemingly vanished (under her skirt), and as Prosecutor Cranston (Vanderslik) offers multiple objections and the Judge (Crosland) attempts to sort the truth from the lies, Smiley reminisces about when he and his little brother had to share a pair of shoes and “Willie got the right shoe and I got the left.”

If it’s not already obvious from the above snippets, playwright Rodriguez has a decidedly oddball sense of humor, and if idiosyncratic characters who say the silliest of things is as much your thing as it is mine, then Normal Noises will be right up your twisted alley.

Adding to the fun are Steve Shaw and Sheena Georges in a series of cleverly choreographed between-scene “Transitions,” the duo joining forces to move athe show’s colorful set pieces onstage and off as Georges tells a series of jokes, each one cornier than the next.

And to make things even better, Rogriguez’s direction is effervescent, the Normal Noises players offer up one splendiferous comedic turn after another, and lighting designer Paul Reid, sound designer JC Gafford, and properties designer Julie Davis add their own considerable talents to the mix.

Normal Noises is produced for the Group Rep by Brooklyn Sample and Heidi Mendez. Alyssa Rae is assistant director. John Ledley is stage manager. Cecil Jennings takes over for Reusch on September 1.

Perhaps the best thing about an evening of one-acts is knowing that if you don’t particularly take to one of them, there’s another playlet soon to follow. In the case of Normal Noises, I’m delighted to say I took to each and every one of Clara Rodriguez’s deliciously offbeat slices of life.

The Group Rep, Lonny Chapman Theatre, 10900 Burbank Boulevard, North Hollywood.
www.thegrouprep.com

–Steven Stanley
August 26, 2022
Photos: Doug Engalla

 

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