When it comes to off-the-wall comedy, mostly of the absurd variety, David Lindsay-Abaire can provide good entertainment. He shows it well, if for too long, in "Wonder of the World," which ends the Orange Girls' 2009 season-and probably its existence-with the current production, which opened Friday at COCA's Anheuser-Busch Black Box theater and will run through Oct. 11.
The story is sheer nonsense, allowing Lindsay-Abaire the chance to run with ribald situations, absurd puns and a lot of one-liners well-delivered by the entire cast, under the fine direction of Deanna Jent.
For example, the mothers of three of the characters die very strange deaths, one in an auto accident involving a beaver, one in bed when a pillow (yes, a pillow) falls on her head and smothers her, one in a her home when an extra-extra large jar of peanut butter (no discussion of smooth or chunky) topples off a shelf and onto her head.
Plot? Not much.
Cass (Brooke Edwards) is leaving her husband, Kip (Charlie Barron) because he is doing kinky sexual things with interesting objects. On the bus to Niagara Falls, obviously for a non-honeymoon, she meets Lois (Kirsten Wylder), a constantly nipping alcoholic who has her own barrel in which to soar over the Falls to her death because of an unhappy marriage. Edwards and Barron are satisfactory, but Wylder walks off with acting honors, showing perfect timing and a perfect sense of the absurd.
There also is terrific work from Mary Schnitzler in a variety of roles, ranging from three waitresses in a theme restaurant to clown, and she's fine in all, brilliant in some. Kelly Ryan and Greg Johnston sparkle as a couple who can't find regular work but who temp as private detectives, and Christopher Hickey is properly dignified, and then confused, as the captain of a Niagara Falls tour boat.
As far as Lindsay-Abaire is concerned there is no point in looking for anything, because you won't be able to find it, and if up do find it, it makes no difference. For example, don't drop your watch into the Niagara River above the falls because it will end up on someone else's wrist.
Orange Girls will be missed because the company brought a charming edge to the local theater scene, but with a plethora of small theater companies suddenly providing difficult choices to audiences and contributors, not all will survive. "Wonder of the World" was one of four local productions to open over the weekend, three of them at the Crestwood Arts Center. Subsequent weekends are going to be just as crowded. I worry.
"Wonder of the World" by the Orange Girls at the COCA Black Box, through Oct. 11
–Joe