[NEohioPAL] Review of CVLT's "Duck Hunter Shoots Angel"

[Bob Abelman]

Mitch Albom's play Duck Hunter shoots fairly straight at CVLT

 

Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review appeared in the News-Herald 5/01/09



Anyone familiar with the best-selling books Tuesdays With Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven knows author Mitch Albom's modus operandi:  Mix sappy sentimentality with endearing characters, add a mild-mannered moral, stir, and allow to simmer.  The result is a sweet, tasty, if not completely satisfying concoction

.

So it is with Albom's play Duck Hunter Shoots Angel, which is receiving its Ohio premiere production at the Chagrin Valley Little Theater. This delightfully quirky comedy revolves around two absurd good 'ol boys from backwoods Alabama, Duane and Duwell Early, who have accidently shot down a celestial being while duck hunting. Enter a cynical, big-city tabloid reporter assigned to cover the story, who, in the course of doing so, unearths some truths about himself.



The play's sweetness resides in its population of absolutely harmless and lovable characters, who range from quirky to eccentric and are a pleasure to spend the evening with.   Its tastiness can be found in the wonderful portrayal of these characters by a cast of gifted CVLT regulars under the astute direction of Bob McCoy.  



Soft and squeezable Adam Young is immediately engaging as the everyman reporter Sandy.   He and Marvin Mallory, as Sandy's photographer and sarcastic sidekick, provide the normality around which Duck Hunter Shoots Angel's lunacy revolves.  Eric Oswald and Mike Rogan, as Duane and Duwell; Kevin Derrick, as Lester the ruthless and clueless owner of the tabloid; and George Spelvin, as a pantomiming half-man/half-alligator employee of the tabloid, serve up the lunacy.  They are flat-out hilarious as Warner Brothers cartoon character equivalents, delivering inventiveness with every line and broad physical comedy at every opportunity.



Alex LaForce-Marzullo, as the young quick-mart attendant Sandy meets on his journey, exudes a natural intelligence behind her down-home innocence that is charming.  Tara Holman, as the love Sandy left behind, does a really nice job of delivering author Albom's obligatory dose of pathos to counterbalance the craziness.  



While wildly entertaining, all this fails to completely satisfy due to Albom's efforts to force-feed a moral into what could nicely suffice as a surreal comedy.  He does this through some rather convoluted storytelling, including moments throughout the play when a disembodied voice interviews Sandy about his past and a jumbled piece of sense-making at the end, when the moral painstakingly reveals itself.  All this requires an excessive number of lighting cues to isolate the on-stage action and has the potential to stall the momentum generated by all the comedy.



Still, with McCoy's comic timing, his actor's full-throttled approach to the material, and Edmond Wolff's playful set that nicely accommodates the action, this CVLT production thrives.  It overcomes Albom's creative shortcomings and takes full advantage of all the good stuff.



Doing so is testimony to why this community theater has been identified as one of the best in the area.

 

Duck Hunter Shoots Angel continues through May 16 at the Chagrin Valley Little Theatre, 56 River Street, Chagrin Falls.  For 

tickets, which range from $10 to $14, call 440-247-8955 or visit  www.cvlt.org.
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