[NEohioPAL] Rave Review of MAKING GOD LAUGH at Actors' Summit

[Neil Thackaberry via NEohioPAL]

*Actors’ Summit season begins with clever comedy “Making God Laugh”
<http://www.knightarts.org/community/akron/actors-summit-season-begins-with-clever-comedy-making-god-laugh>*

Published on October 15, 2014 by Roger Durbin
<http://www.knightarts.org/author/rdurbin> in Akron
<http://www.knightarts.org/category/community/akron>, Theater
<http://www.knightarts.org/category/theater-2>

*0*
<http://www.knightarts.org/community/akron/actors-summit-season-begins-with-clever-comedy-making-god-laugh#comments>

Sean Grennan’s “Making God Laugh” is a hoot as presented by Actors’ Summit
<http://www.actorssummit.org/>, a Knight Arts grantee
<http://knightfoundation.org/grants/20113153/>. It’s the company’s season
opener, and it’s a great one to begin with – funny, cleverly written, a
wonderful mixture of laughable incidents that have serious undertones that
ultimately get worked out in the plot, and some gifted acting.

The play takes its title ostensibly from a Woody Allen line, “If you want
to make God laugh, tell him your plans.” Over the course of three decades
(all set around family get-togethers at various holidays) with Ruthie and
Bill (Chanda K. Porter and James L. Hill) and their three children, Maddie
(Shani Ferry), Thomas (Adam Klusty) and Richard (Keith E. Stevens), you
certainly leave the theater with the idea that life doesn’t always turn out
the way you planned for it to or wanted it to, or for that matter – and
more dramatically covered in this play – the way your parents wanted it to.

As you might expect, when the family joins up, the topic turns to how all
their lives are going. Maddie is an aspiring actress, Thomas wants to
become a priest, and Rick (as he insists on being called, though everyone
prefers to call him Richie and Richard), is a former all-star football
player determined to strike it rich through all sorts of insider knowledge.
None of those things happens over the course of several years, much to
their controlling, morally rigid mother’s regret.

Thomas tanks as a priest and instead marries and has the grandchildren
Ruthie always wanted, but not from whom she thought they would come. She
always pestered Maddie about marriage and children (since she saw that as a
womanly duty). Instead, Maddie comes out as gay, takes a lesbian partner,
gives up acting and fulfills a career as a public school teacher. Rick
falls for one losing scheme after another and drowns his sense of failure
in alcohol.

It doesn’t sound much like a raucous comedy, but it gets played that way.
The center of the storm, so to speak, is mother Ruthie. She had her own
feelings way back when for women, but denied them for religious reasons,
instead stifling her feelings in a tense and somewhat loveless marriage and
hoping for what she repeats at every holiday – a perfect world and perfect
children.

The comic sections come from the children teasing each other as siblings
will do even when fully grown adults, and from their relentless but comic
reaction to Mom’s fantasia dip that she makes at every holiday and everyone
hates. A lot of the laughs come from seeing three decades of fashion change
– bad wigs and hairdos included. Pretty funny stuff, and it keeps the
lighter tone for the darker story.

Playwright Grennan’s script weaves well the wit, tension and wisdom of the
play, tying together loose ends as the play winds up. He resolves it all in
some poignant moments, showing that when it counts, even disputing families
can come together and support each other.

The actors are uniformly good, with Ferry as Maddie and Porter as Ruthie
standing out. That probably is because the biggest tensions in the play are
between them, and perhaps because they seem to have the most resilience and
strength.

Director Neil Thackaberry, co-artistic director of Actors’ Summit, kept the
pace moving and the action visually interesting by having the characters
constantly moving about the stage. There were no dead moments.

Actors’ Summit is off to a great start with this play. Go see it; you’ll
leave the theater feeling glad you went.

*Actors’ Summit will present “Making God Laugh” at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday
and 2 p.m. Sunday through November 2 at Greystone Hall, 103 S. High St.,
Akron; 330-374-7568; www.actorssummit.org <http://www.actorssummit.org/>.
Tickets are $33 ($28 for seniors and $10 for students).*
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