Neil Simon’s FOOLS Come
to Culver City
Richard Schulenberg
Special to the Mirror
The new Culver City Public Theatre starts its
inaugural season with a light-hearted production of Neil Simon's 1981
comedy, "Fools." "Fools" is, deservedly, one of
Simon's lesser known plays. We are talking Neil Simon Lite here. Even
the 1981 Broadway production directed by Mike Nichols couldn't save
this work from being shoved to the back of the shelf.
The play takes place in the cursed Ukrainian village
of Kulyenchikov some one hundred years ago. The curse? For two hundred
years every villager has suffered the curse of absolute and
unremitting stupidity. Not just mere stupidity, we're talking DUM
[sic] here! Snetsky (Kyle Nudo), the town shepherd not only can't find
his "two dozen (14)" sheep, he can't even find his own first
name.
Into this village of fools comes Leon Tolchinsky
(Perry Jay King), an idealistic young school teacher, who rushes in
like a Peace Corp poster boy to save the village from the curse (or,
as the villagers invariably call it "the nurse, no the
purse..."). Leon is lured to the village by an totally misspelled
advertisement placed by the town's intellectual, Dr. Zubritsky (Eugene
Lebowitz), to educate the doctor's daughter, Sophia (Maria Hill) and
rid the village of its curse. Leon, of course, falls madly in love
with this damsel sporting the IQ of a cabbage.
With one day ("25 hours" according to the
villianous Duke Yousekevitch (David A. Arnold)) to accomplish this or
fall victim to the curse himself, Leon struggles to raise Sophia from
the the plant phylum to one of the lower vertebrates. (As I recall,
Roy had better luck getting Trigger to count.) Needless to say, like
any good fairy tale, love saves the day.
King's Leon and Lebowitz's Dr. Zubritsky are standouts.
King's enthusiasm turning into bafflement as he runs head-on into a
stone wall of stupidity is well worth seeing. Lebowitz's addled
doctor, proud that his daughter has mastered the art of being able to
sit down, is a wonderful comic turn. Arnold's villainous Duke, like
all good villains, is quite appealing -- given your druthers, he's the
one you'd want to hang with. The cast is spotty in places, but
generally acceptable.
This is vintage
Simon schtick. One liners and gags, spoken and visual, fly with the
frequency of bullets from a Gatling Gun. I can't help, however, but
feel this is an idea Simon floated in his old days writing for Sid
Caesar (Sid as Leon, Imogen Coca as Sophia, etc.), but got shot down.
The play milks one "stupid" joke after another -- it's
really a one joke play. Mercifully, it's short (around 90 minutes with
intermission) and, in spite of being milked dry, still funny.
This production is fun and free! The Culver City
Public Theatre is off to an entertaining start while on its way to
taking on classics ("Electra" by Sophocles and the 18th
Century Italian comedy "The Fan") later this summer. The
company deserves support.
Seating is on the lawn, so the company encourages
blankets, lawn chairs and picnic baskets. The audience (which included
families with small children) at the performance I attended was full,
enthusiastic, and laughed through the whole performance. A fine way to
spend a summer weekend afternoon.
Neil Simon's "Fools", directed by Kathy
Fitzpatrick at Paul Carson Park (the corner of Motor Avenue and
Braddock Drive in Culver City). Free. Saturday, July 31 and Sunday,
August 1 at 2:00 PM.
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