(Darren King & Lisa
Bobbert)
Lisa Bobbert and Darren King reprise their award-winning
roles in Christopher Durang’s internationally acclaimed comedy, Laughing Wild.
Returning to the KZN stage after an absence of 10 years, Laughing Wild will have you laughing,
crying and gripping the edge of your seat as you meet two zany people who are
as different to each other as a can of tuna is to the Vatican.
Laughing Wild
deals with the struggle of two people attempting to make sense of the world in
which they are forced to live – coping with the everyday stress of trying to
buy a can of tuna, coming to grips with the infinitely more taxing subject of
religion.
Highlighting the dilemma we face of inhabiting over-crowded
urban environments without forming meaningful relationships, Durang’s wickedly
funny play exposes how we cohabit with each other, yet each remains nothing
more than a faceless person in a crowd.
First presented as an off Broadway production in New York in
1987 (with its master-of-the-absurd playwright in the cast), Laughing Wild is written as a
two-hander. Set in New York in the late 80’s, the play is structured around two
30-minute monologues, followed by a 30-minute second act, some of it monologue,
some of it scenes between the two characters who remain unnamed.
As the play opens, a woman enters and launches into an
increasingly frenetic recital of the hazards and frustrations of city life in America
– waiting in queues, encountering impolite taxi drivers, being exposed to
fatuous talk shows and encountering inconsiderate supermarket shoppers. She is
especially enraged by a man who obstructed her from buying a can of tuna, whom
she attacked in a fit of temper.
In the second monologue, the man appears. While the subjects
upon which he expounds (nuclear waste, the intolerance of the Catholic Church,
particularly in sexual matters, the threat of AIDS) are broader in context, he
too dwells on an incident in a supermarket when a strange woman hit him over
the head in the tuna fish aisle.
The two protagonists finally meet and re-enact varying
interpretations of the supermarket incident before launching into an
explosively funny parody of a talk show. The two find each other after a
fashion as they come together at the Harmonic Convergence in Central Park –
hoping to instil a sense of optimism and purpose in their lives, but remaining
sceptical they will succeed.
Laughing Wild was previously staged in Durban in 2004,
directed by Steven Stead who oversees the show’s KZN revival.
The production runs at DHS’s Seabrooke’s Theatre in Musgrave
from October 2 to 12 with performances from Tuesday to Saturday at 19h30 (Sunday
at 15h00). Tickets R100 can be booked through Web Tickets at www.webtickets.co.za (enquiries on 086
122 5598).
Posts
