It started out so simple. Tom Kerwood (John Esbenshade Jr.) and his wife Linda (Angie Petty) have been trying to have a baby with no success. They have decided to file a petition for adoption. They prepare and rehearse for the interview with Mrs. Potter (Holly Sherwood), agency representative. All seems to be in order, but as we know in any British farce, the wheels of the baby carriage plans are about to come off in “Tom, Dick, and Harry” now playing at the Ocala Civic Theatre.
Tom’s wastrel brothers, Dick and Harry, try to help, but are no help at all. One deals in contraband cigarettes and the other has a plan of supplying cadaver parts in a venture sure enrich everyone. Add to this two Albanian refugees (John LaPaille and Melissa Anne Baller), a Russian Mafia heavy (Fred Due) and the prerequisite policeman (Bill Roughton) and you have the receipe for universal stage mayhem. Newcomer Kerwood sets the pace with an energy level rarely seen. Ensemble work is excellent. The same is to be said for blocking and voice projection.
Honorable mention goes to LaPaille and Baller whose mostly meaningless gibberish is ridiculously funny.
Playwright Ray Cooney has had a string of popular British farces. They all have the same shortcomings. Each needs to have some quiet time between escapades, otherwise, the shows become a shouting matches. Secondly, the Brits have words that might throw audiences. Mobiles for cell phones is easy, but it is a stretch to know that “porkies” are fibs.
Ocala Civic Theatre is fortunate to have Fred Mullen as visiting director. Mullen has a list of roles and directorial credits yards long and had to be pried from his retirement home in Tennessee for this gig.
Although you may not understand everything that is happening, I guarantee you are going to laugh.
“Tom, Dick, and Harry” is a main stage production at Ocala Civic and runs weekends through April 12.
For other information, visit their web site at www.ocalacivictheatre.com.