Henry Fielding's autobiographical play "Tom Thumb" with "The Author's Farce" opened to an unsuspecting audience last night at the Warren Bentley Theater. The production, directed by Sam Abel, assistant professor of drama, is two plays in one. The first part depicts the "heroic" struggles of the playwright Henry Luckless (Matt Trusch) as he tries to publish his play in the face of paranoid government intervention.
Meanwhile Luckless scrounges off his landlady (Toshi Uchida '93) and romances her daughter (Suzanne Breselor '97). The acting here is pure caricature, with stereotypically wild gesticulations and overwrought "emotionalism."
Unfortunately, the characterizations frequently lacked bravado. A lot of the scenes seemed forced, especially all the acrobatics, double-takes and fidgeting, especially in the scene at the publisher's (with state-of-the-art eighteenth century Macintoshes?) in which Henry pleads his case to the Bookseller (Doug Rainey '94).
But moments of great entertainment abounded. In his role as Murdertext, the "divine" Morgan Drmaj '95 adroitly played up the hilarious hypocritical aspects of the character who first bans, and after receiving libidinal advances, allows Luckless' play, now turned in a puppet show, to be presented. Another bright spot was Jay Hanlon '97 who portrayed Luckless friend Mr. Witmore with great humanity.
In the satire-turned-contemporary political philosophy the production becomes heavy-handed and confusing. Any subtlety is erradicated when "George Bush" enters on stage with a "read my lips" pin; when Clinton jogs on with a T-shirt that, on one side reads "It's the Economy Stupid" and on the other "I didn't inhale"; and when a boozy Nancy Reagan sports a pin reading "I love Ronnie." Tom Thumb himself becomes Oliver North, complete with a tank.
The plot never quite gels with the message that it tries to get across. The characters become caricatures of caricatures: Ronald Reagan and his jellybean jar, Bill Clinton and his McDonalds' bag and Bush with his ubiquitous prop golf club all go fumbling about, switching in and out of accents and becoming obvious straw men for a pointed and belabored political commentary.
If there lingered any doubts about the play's contemporary "message," keywords such as "thousand points of light," and "Watergate" were inserted in the text, hammering the last nail into the dead horse's coffin.
There were some humorous moments, especially when, after satirizing Quayle's well-documented trouble with the word "potato," the F.B.I., in another "scathing indictment" of the Reagan years, came onstage armed with a prop that proudly read: Iran-Contra "Inditments" [sic].
Scene after scene mercilessly ridiculed the characters beyond recognition, losing the tenuous connection with the real personages they were meant to represent.
After all her whining and crying, Nancy Reagan seemed more like Tammy Fae Bakker than the more feisty and bitchy first lady which she was supposed to represent.
On the whole, the actors were focused on their parts and acquitted themselves well.
As Reagan, Michael Lepore '93 gave the role the one-dimensional, feeble-minded image expected of him.
Andrew Slesinger '95 as Bush most closely fit his role. Mustacha (Alina Mogollin '96), inexplicably turned into "Miss Congeniality," had a great lower-class Brooklyn accent and attitude. Margaret Thatcher (Sarah Israel '97) maintained a level of dignity even after being impaled while on her movable Houses of Parliament cart.
After an elongated ending, the characters from the first play return to settle their differences. Henry Lawless threatens Lord Walpole, the real-life overseer of what plays get produced during the author's time.
He makes the point that while Walpole's authority is temporal, Fielding's theatrical retaliation will live on, and it does, however when the censors close the play down at the very end, one is not entirely sure whose point was made.
"Tom Thumb" with "The Author's Farce" continues its run this weekend, Feb. 17, 18 and 19 and next week from Feb. 23 through Feb. 26, at 8 p.m. each night. Tickets can be purchased through the Hopkins Center Box Office.
