[NEohioPAL] "Oxygen-depletingly FUNNY" ROMANTIC FOOLS at Actors' Summit Beacon Journal Review

[Neil Thackaberry]

Oxygen-depletingly FUNNY--all the more so because the situations are all
familiar!  Lissy Gulick

*WORTH A DATE*

*
*

*‘Romantic Fools’ offers a humorous take on love*

January 17, 2011 by Akron Beacon
Journal<http://the330.com/author/akron-beacon-journal/>

Kerry Clawson
Beacon Journal staff writer


Many people would agree that trying to find the right mate is one hairy
proposition.


Playwright Rich Orloff expands on the many humorous possibilities this quest
for romance may take in his two-person comedy *Romantic Fools*, starring
Shani Ferry and Keith Stevens at Actors’ Summit in downtown Akron. That
includes everything from a caveman showing up at a woman’s door for a blind
date to a Stepford husband driving his wife crazy with his perfection.

Actors’ Summit presents 10 of the play’s original 12 scenes, each a sketch
comedy in its own right. Oberlin graduate Orloff also wrote *Big Guys, *a
comedic* *riff on unscrupulous business executives that Actors’ Summit
produced in 2009.


The theater is using its production of *Romantic Fools* as an opportunity to
give some young directors experience. Directing is shared by co-artistic
director Neil Thackaberry and Peter Voinovich, Daniel Taylor and Shawn
Galligan.

The comedy’s leading lady and man bring to life the many outlandish
mutations love may take with ease and humor, with both holding the stage for
nearly two hours.

This comedy has a men-are-from-Mars-women-are-from-Venus core that receives
a bit of an edgy treatment. That includes numerous references to foreplay,
sex and body parts that actually add up to a sweet brand of humor when heard
in context.


It’s a relationship laugh fest for grown-ups, given some of the play’s
strong language and sexual references.


The play succeeds in blowing up all of our neuroses about dating to
over-the-top proportions.


Ferry’s a tiny dynamo as a hot-cold dating interest who gives new meaning to
sending a man mixed signals.


Or how about the bar scene where the woman doesn’t accept a drink because
her mind jumps to the heartache, chaos and divorce that will ensue if she
dares to become involved? That relationship’s spent before it’s started.


Voinovich directs one of the funniest scenes in the play, when an unlikely
aphrodisiac leads to a tryst behind a couch that has the couple flinging
various items of clothing and undergarments toward the audience.

Stevens, who’s the male love interest for most of the play, also takes a
turn as an over-the-top wedding planner with really bad quips. But his
finest moment comes when his bachelor Andrew dives into a huge pasta bowl in
search of an engagement ring.


The play’s battles of the sexes turn into the perfect visual power struggle
when the man and woman arm-wrestle atop a bar while flinging insults at each
other. Accomplished comedic actors Ferry and Stevens layer insult upon
insult with perfect alacrity.


But later, as their characters pretend to get into a knock-down fight during
some prenuptial jitters, they create a feeling of genuine love and
affection.


Sure, Orloff’s material contains plenty of male-female stereotypes. But it’s
the truths we see in these tales’ extremes that make us laugh.

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*Details*

*Comedy: **Romantic Fools.*

*When:* Through Jan. 30, 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays.

*Where: *Actors’ Summit, Greystone Hall, 103 S. High St., Akron.

*Onstage:* Shani Ferry and Keith Stevens.

*Offstage:* Rich Orloff, playwright; Neil Thackaberry, Shawn Galligan,
Daniel Taylor and Peter Voinovich, directors; Amanda Lin Boyd, stage
manager; MaryJo Alexander, costumes/props; Kevin Rutan, lighting; Taylor and
Voinovich, sound.

*Tickets:* $27-$30; senior citizens $24 Thursdays and Sundays; students, $7.
Additional dinner option $25 each or $10 for children 12 and under, through
this Sunday. Dinner begins at 6 p.m. before evening performances, or after
matinee performances.

*Information:* 330-374-7568 or http://www.actorssummit.org.


-- 
Neil Thackaberry
Co-artistic Director
Actors' Summit, a professional theater
103 South High Street
6th Floor
Akron OH 44308
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