Oakland University Theatre Review: Current Production ‘Rumors’ Spreads Hilarity

Anyone needing a good laugh – a shoulder-shaking, side-splitting howler – should make their way to Oakland University’s Varner Studio Theatre to enjoy Neil Simon’s brilliant comedy, Rumors.

This new production by the Department of Music, Theatre and Dance, directed by Associate Professor of Theatre, Acting and Directing Anthony Guest, is calculated to help audiences forget their worries for a couple hours. That’s reason enough in these tense times to resurrect a fanciful ‘80s-era farce. Beyond that, Guest recognized that this play would uniquely challenge the MTD students to stretch artistically by introducing them to the work of American Theatre icon Neil Simon and the physical boot camp that is modern farce. The fact that the cast calls for five male and five female parts sealed the deal.

The challenge in producing any farce – from Moliere to Camoletti – is that the actors must take everything they’ve been taught about “keeping it real” and leave that skill in the classroom. Farce, at its best, is preposterous, unbelievable and outrageously complicated. The characters are larger than life. Their motivating action is thwarted by mistaken identities, elaborate subterfuge, and the urgent need to be in two or three places at once. This means that the actors must perform with split-second timing as they dash up the stairs, pop out of or behind doors, and drop into dead faints. Moreover, the plot line of a proper farce generally has so many twists and turns that the audience simply surrenders itself to the mayhem; the actors, however, must keep track of whatever version of shifting reality their character is grasping at the time.

The cast and crew of Rumors rise to the occasion. The actors are well paired into couples that have worked out the essential give-and-take of comic timing, investing their characters with a simmering zaniness that boils over into the final scenes.

The play is set in the lavish home of a couple that is hosting a dinner party to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary. The story opens as the first guests to arrive, Chris and Ken Gorman, have just discovered that their host has shot himself in the head and the hostess and servants are nowhere to be found. When they realize that the host has only grazed himself, they determine to set up a subterfuge to avoid the vicious rumors that will no doubt spread if the other guests learn that attempted suicide – or murder – has taken place within their posh social circle. This happens in the first few minutes of the play, and the pace picks up from there and doesn’t slow down.

Kayla Pingerelli is Chris, the high-strung, somewhat ditsy wife who reverberates her husband’s intensity. She wants to call the police – or at least the doctor. But Andrew Barikmo as Ken, a lawyer, takes an “I’m in command” approach to the situation and forces her to hang up the phone. Even after he has been rendered deaf by a gun shot at close range and can no longer hear anything going on, he believes he has the situation under control.

In short order, they are joined by the other guests. Lily Talevski (Claire Ganz) is a lovely, quick-witted socialite who quickly sorts through the tennis club’s pecking order and peccadillos to wheedle out any hot rumors and embellish as necessary. She announces that their new BMW has just been T-boned by a hit-and-run driver in a Porsche. Brian Baylor, her husband (tax accountant Lenny), staggers in with a bad case of whiplash and the sense that someone is conspiring to undermine his career, his social standing at the tennis club, and his general sense of wellbeing.

Marissa Pattullo (Cookie Cusack) and Michael Lison (Ernie Cusack) are hilarious as the quirky guests who are pressed into service by the others. Despite her trick back, which capriciously throws her into gyrating spasms, and his psychiatrist’s habit of analyzing the rest of the group, they attempt to make dinner amidst the general mayhem.

The last couple to arrive are the Coopers. Gabriel Jamison (Glenn) is an ambitious politician running for State Senate and Grace Rosen (Cassie), is his insecure, pampered trophy wife. They walk in the door mid-argument and scarcely register the pandemonium about to envelope their marital differences.

Eventually, the law is summoned, and it arrives in the form of Officer Welch – the petite but not-to-be-messed-with Jordan Taylor. She is shadowed by rookie cop Brandon Wright (as Officer Pudney) who sticks to her like a cocker spaniel puppy intent on getting everything down on paper.

In the final scene, Baylor delivers an elaborate monologue – an “explanation” of the evening’s events – that is itself worth the price of admission. But there is much to admire in this production beyond the terrific cast. The costumes, designed by Shelby VanOphem, are fabulous. The men are in conservative evening dress, except for Ernie, who appears in a gauche ‘80s era tux. His eccentric wife, Cookie, arrives wearing a vintage gown and terrifying fox stole inherited from her flapper-era Polish grandmother. The other women wear expensive cocktail dresses that, they are each careful to announce, was originally worn at some high-brow charity gala or another.

The scenic design by Karen Kozlowski is a rich two-story affair with vaulted ceilings, an elegant palette of cream with almond accents, and the requisite number of doors, staircases and balconies to satisfy Guest’s elaborate staging. And the director’s vision is further realized by a production team that includes Christopher Winter, Lighting Designer; Kyle Goetzinger, Sound Designer; Mannon McIntosh and Stefanie Sambrano, Hair and Makeup Designers; and Amy Brown, Stage Manager.

This uproarious production of Rumors can be seen Thursday through Saturday, February 9-11, at 8 p.m., February 10 at 10 a.m., or Sunday, February 12 at 2 p.m. The evening show on February 11 will be shadow-signed for deaf and hard-of-hearing patrons by Synergy on Stage. All performances are in the Varner Studio Theatre on the campus of Oakland University. Tickets are available online at a cost of $15 general admission and $8 for students. For more information, see the MTD department website.

This review submitted by Patty Nolan