'Wickedly funny' comedy highlights pre-holiday fare

By William Clarke

Transcontinental Media

NovaNewsNow.com

It seems regional actors and audiences have developed a taste for homicide. Rupert Haley's Annie Kempton recently premiered in Digby with a look at state-sanctioned homicide while a drive up the road to Annapolis Royal would have led to another murderous affair with 5 Stab Wounds in The Governor. In keeping with that theme, The Perfect Manhattan brings local theatre fans another dose of live mayhem when it opens November 23 at King's Theatre.

Written by Ontario's Dianne Lococo, The Perfect Manhattan has won numerous awards and the King's performance will mark its debut outside of that province.

This contemporary comedy tackles the difficulties that arrive when a sophisticated suburban housewife conjures up an imaginary lover. Of course, the neighbours from hell -- okay, New Jersey -- move in next door and that prompts an invitation to dine. It soon becomes apparent the men cannot see the fantasy man, but the other woman can, and she wants him for her own.

Mayhem and murder ensue.

"It is a comedy, and it's got sparkling repartee and very subtle wit," said director, Madeleine Akin-Carhart. "What I mean by that is the comedy is very subtle, especially the language."

Lococo said her inspiration for this play, her first full-length effort, came during a dinner party where a set of her friends shared tales about their dreadful neighbours.

"I had started working on the play already and it was quite different, so I switched it based on what I'd heard from these other people," said Lococo in a telephone interview. "Coincidentally, a lot of the stuff I'd thought of, this guy had done to them. The rest I made up from there."

As a member of the Annapolis District Drama Group, and fresh from an exquisitely outrageous performance in Stab Wounds, Akin-Carhart is making her directorial debut with this play.

It should come as no surprise the frazzled housewife's name is Madeleine, as Lococo and Akin-Carhart attended university together, and Lococo said she likes to slip her friends' names into her plays.

"I like the Madeleine character because she's got a sense of whimsy and she's very strong, but frail in a way too," said Lococo. "The Fifi character is quite funny, she tries to steal Madeleine's imaginary lover, Roderick."

Lococo is relatively new to the craft of writing plays, having just picked it up seven years ago after honing her fiction writing government reports. She said what makes The Perfect Manhattan fun is the ridiculousness of the premise.

"I like that all of these things happen that couldn't happen in real life, but you kind of believe it when you see it up there on stage," she said.

The cast features Rich Cianflone, Susan Stopford, Phil Milo, Wayne Currie, and Akin-Carhart's fellow Stab Wounds performer, Brenda Keen. Jennifer Batiot supports the production as stage manager.

"It is very wickedly funny and there's quite a bit of physical comedy," said Akin-Carhart. "It's got to move quite quickly, which is daunting for a first-time director."

She said the idea to perform this play came while she and Keen were reading through it for fun.

"She likes to act -- I'm not so keen on acting, so I said okay I'll direct and you can be in it," said Akin-Carhart. "I went to the president of the drama group and said, 'I've got this play and I've got some people in mind to be the cast, can I do it?'"

The play will be performed at Annapolis Royal’s King's Theatre November 23 through 25.