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Show A -W^ DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT No pie for you Tuesday, January 24, 2006 \ Pioneer's 'Humble Boy' offers a slightly spoiled slice of theater, but showcases great performances fellow at Cambridge University who returns to his mother's bucolic English country home for his father's Sitting through an undercooked funeral. Felix, like seemingly all geniuses pl#y yields the same result as eating a side of bad ground beef: Din- in modern drama, suffers from a ers (or play patrons) may contract huge number of strange, ambiguous E, coli, Salmonella or some other psychological problems. He stutters, appears to endure intermittent colon-ravaging "bug." Well, actually, plays can't convey psychotic or schizophrenic epiparasites, bacteria and the like, but sodes (invariably accompanied by they can leave an astringent taste in irritating, strident sound bites) and one's mouth and a sense of profound bears the typical social ineptitude emptiness and malaise in one's gut. and insecurity ascribed to nutty - Charlotte Jones' tragicomedy professors. His mother, Flora (played by Patri"Humble Boy," playing through Jan. 2%. at Pioneer Memorial Theater, trifes fervently to imbue itself with • WHAT {Pioneer Memorial Theatre Company the sort of profundity that grants presents Charlotte Jones'flHumble Boy" great works entry into the continu• WHENt Jan.11-Jan.28 ous literary conversation that we call "the canon." • WHERE {Pioneer Memorial Theatre, ; In the program notes, playwright 300 S. 1400 East Jones discusses her play's paral. HOW MUCH {Tickets are $20-539. Contact the lels to Shakespeare's "Hamlet" (but box office for more information: avoids, or shuns, the equally obvious (801)581-6961 congruence to Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia," David Auburn's "Proof" and Ron Howard's "A Beautiful Mind,"), cia Hodges), nettled by nature's agand infuses her play with muted ing process, cannot find satisfaction existential themes and symbolism. in any area of her life. Felix bothers She tries to round her characters her, she finds her friends—especialinto complex, genuine beings. Some ly Joyce Cohen's ingratiating Mercy heady science supposedly plays a Lott—unfulfilling, and her uncouth large part in the play's development. lover, George Pye (played by Max Everything is meant to have multi- Robinson, who looks remarkably farious meanings. There's even a bit like an age-progressed Kevin Baof mental illness thrown in for fun. con), a stressful bore. These ought to register as prime She and Felix bicker on the magingredients for a spectacular play. nificently crafted pastoral English But in this case, they're not. Jones garden set (credit to apt designer tried to do too many things and, Peter Harrison), in which the entire consequently, "Humble Boy's" plot play takes place. Soon, Felix's jilted is patchy, its characters inconsis- lover and George's daughter, Rosie tent and its thematic content dodgy Pye (played by Michelle Six), enters and difficult to discern. Despite the and stirs up a ruckus. playwright's good intentions, fasSome more stuff happens—allutidious production and all-around sions are made, themes shoddily sterling performances, the play just fleshed out, characters interact— feels as though it's going through and the play ends in a rash and unthe perfunctory motions. settled resolution. It's just too underdeveloped. "Humble Boy's" obvious "Ham"Humble" centers on Felix Hum- let" homage lacks the expected novble (played by Sean Arbuckle), a elty. Felix talks to the ghost of his familquetoast astrophysics research ther Jim (played by Munson Hicks) Ben Zalklnd Chronicle Assistant A&E Editor in the garden, just as "Hamlet" did. His mother plans to remarry soon after her husband died. There's also' a silly, convoluted motif surrounding the bees the Humbles keep in the garden. It all seems contrived and...well..!silly—not at all literary and astute. But that problem pales when compared with the play*s glaring lack of resolution. We find out that Felix unwittingly sired Rosie's child. She offers him a chance to be involved in her daughter's life, but we never find out if he does. He doesn't balk at the invitation or anything—he just seems to forget about it after she leaves. In a similarly irritating event, Felix's father's ashes are involved in a stomach-turning mix-up, but nobody onstage but Mercy ever discovers the truth. The problem just sort of evanesces, and the potential comedy osmoses into the gorgeous environs. Indeed, the whole play feels haphazard, distracted and incomplete. It's as if Jones built a wonderful house foundation, then covered it in a tarp and demanded that it's fully functioning and her kids should live in it. Arbuckle, as Felix, harbors a few distracting tendencies. His stutter sounds forced, and when Felix gets angry, Arbuckle's voice morphs from meek to a stentorian vibrato that resonates as distinctly out of place. The rest of the cast, however— from Hicks' understated Jim to Robinson's brash George—handles scant material well and makes a drab play a little more entertaining. But ultimately, it's "Humble Boy's" aesthetic adeptness that provides the most enjoyment. Designer Harrison's beautiful English garden backdrop, complete with trees, brush, a realistic cottage facade and an impalpably nostalgic ambiance, adds a lacking dimension to the play. Maybe, for some people, that's enough. b.zaikind@chronicle.utah.edu A rose by any other name...smells like a "Humble Boy." Babcock's 'On the Razzle' is a tongue-in-cheek delight The play, first performed in 1981, is based on Johann Nestroy's 19th century play "Ein Fux Will Er sich Directed by Michael Unger, Tom Machen," which has inspired other Stoppard's "On the Razzle" opened works such as Thornton Wilder's at the Babcock Theatre last Wednes- "The Matchmaker" and "Hello, Dolday as the theater department's an- ly!" Stoppard has also written for the screen, including the films "Rosennual senior show. Stoppard's slapstick comedy tells crantz & Guildenstern Are Dead," the story of Herr Zangler, an Austri- "Empire of the Sun" and "Shakean merchant who is trying to protect speare in Love," for which he won an his giggly niece from a shifty suitor Oscar. while attempting to procure his "On the Razzle" keeps you laughown marital happiness. Meanwhile, ing, and with the Babcock's intimate Danny Kaye-like Weinberl looks af- atmosphere, you feel like you're in on ter Zangler's shop until he, too, gets the jokes," said Elizabeth DeBroux, caught up in the action. who works in the languages & literaAs with other screwball stories, the ture department. characters in "On the Razzle" whip In particular, Sean Kazarian's perthemselves into a delightful, tangled formance as Herr Zangler, the "Camess of lies. Each character's desire sanova incarnate," is spot on. With is dependant on another's. boisterous comedy, Kazarian makes "One false move," as Zangler says the ridiculous cowboy-boot wearing at one point, "and we could have a Zangler both laughable and likable. farce on our hands." The only drawback to a comedy Rebecca Higgs Chronicle Writer "On the Razzle" Is a knee-slappln' good time, eh? like "On the Razzle" is that acting tends to be a bit forced and overdone. Some lines were delivered in a hasty manner, so sometimes it was difficult to understand what the actors were saying. But this is perhaps attributed more to the slapstick genre than the talent of the actors. The costume design and make-up are also- worth mentioning. Zangler looked, quite rightly, absurd; the dubious characters appeared diabolical and the French maid was French enough. The horse is another highlight of the show (allow for sparse explanation here, as the element of surprise is part of the horse's fun). "On the Razzle's" dialogue is witty, its action fast-paced and its characters likable. Besides, any production that uses the word "agog" is worth a look-see. To quote Zangler's servant Melchoic, this production is, in a word, "classic." r.higgs@chronicle.utah.edu LESSONS LEARNED IN THE WAR' Foxtrot Calendar, this is Delta Charlie: Pull out! Tuesday Jan. 24 misinterpreted by Calendar as a coded message from our informant that the Feds were onto us. lesson 208: Let them eat cake. If take is unavailable, let them eat fop-Rocks and soda. . For future reference, calling a Mexican gangster a gordita is only going to get you in trouble. lesson (Boeing) 747: Art is life. Let's hear it art! Taylor & Taylor showing at Phillips Gallery ( 4 4 4 E. 2 0 0 South) from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Lesson 5,342: Calendar has a dream that all events listings shall prosper and...um...prosper. This guy stofe our thunder, and we want it back. Preferably in lightning form. 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