Men are from Mars, women are from prison
by Gary Zeidner (buzz@boulderweekly.com)

To paraphrase the brilliant Oscar Wilde, simple pleasures are the refuge of the complex. As life becomes more and more complicated—be it by difficult projects at work, unexpected issues at home or the advent of yet still more inaptly named "modern conveniences"—often the most satisfying pleasures are, in fact, the simple ones. Playing poker with good friends. Drinking a beer while watching football. Petting a dog happy for the attention. Walking along the Foothills on a warm autumn day.

I find Wilde's maxim applies quite well to theatre. Certainly, there is much to be said for the traveling Broadway shows that come through Denver. Huge casts, professionally crafted costumes and special effects that only loads of money can buy usually find a way to impress. Polished performances buoyed by substantial financing at the Denver Center level, too, generally entertain. But the big boys don't have a corner on the market. To the contrary, some of the most gratifying theatre around comes from tiny, local theatres that may put on only two or three shows a year. Maybe it's just the Populist in me, but when a show cobbled together on a shoestring (played in a theatre not much bigger than a shoebox) by volunteer actors and staff (often with more soul than skill) puts its best foot forward and strides confidently to victory, it is a truly noteworthy event. And when a particular company manages this feat year after year, well it's a rare pleasure, indeed.

Outside the Box: Classic TV Live on Stage is the latest installment of the Theatre Company of Lafayette's annual Halloween homage to the creepy, kooky television shows of yore. This year, the TCoL presents adapted episodes of The Twilight Zone, My Favorite Martian and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. TCoL compounds the nostalgia by acting out classic television commercials from the era between each segment of the play. (Seeing Lafayette's own mayor, Chris Berry, playing Mr. Whipple in the Charmin commercial is by itself worth the price of admission.) Both the television shows and the commercials are adapted as parodies, so while the chills of The Twilight Zone or Alfred Hitchcock Presents episodes remain intact they are leavened by generous amounts of humor.

The TZ episode, "People Are Alike All Over," begins the night of 1960's flashbacks (no, the other kind). Rod Serling (Ian Gerber, who wins my Best Actor award) makes his customary introduction before astronauts Samantha Conrad (Deborah Layman) and Warren Marcusson (Brett Nickerson) blast off for Mars. Conrad worries about what they may find on the Red Planet while Marcusson quaintly assures her that if there is life on Mars it will, by Genesis, be human. And if the Martians are human they will, of course, act and react just like humans on Earth. As one expects from the TZ, Marcusson is both right and wrong in expectation-shattering ways.

As Martin the Martian and his reluctant human host Tim in "Man or Amoeba," Dutch Shindler and Gil Shalit respectively give two of the strongest performances of the show. Shindler embraces his inner Ray Walston while bouncing dry retorts effortlessly off of Shalit's straight man performance. Though well executed, I felt that a third thriller-type television show would better serve the lineup than a rather incongruous comedy.

In my book the best episode was AHP's "Final Escape," in which a career criminal plots to escape from prison. TCoL's choice to set this version of "Final Escape" in a women's prison is an interesting one that works with this year's cast. The final twist may seem a bit obvious to the sophisticated 2006 viewer, but when the show originally aired in 1964 it must have been both shocking and deliciously original. Special mention goes to Bill Graham who turns in a marvelous impression of Hitchcock himself.

A Halloween tradition for many years now, TCoL's Outside the Box: Classic TV Live on Stage is a hoot and half. It may be more family-play-after-Thanksgiving-dinner than Masterpiece Theatre, but you know what, that's just fine by me.