Tales of Love and Sausages

Venue: Studio Theatre- Mead Theatre

Remaining Performances:

Thursday, July 22, at 8 p.m.
Sunday, July 25, at 11 a.m.

They Say: Physical comedy about heartache and hunger pangs. Produced in the classical comic style of Commedia dell’Arte, this family-friendly laughfest features famous masked characters such as Arlecchino (Harlequin) and Pantalone (the Pantaloon) in traditional scenarios of pounding hearts and growling stomachs.

Sophia’s Take: I was determined to be a serious, thoughtful reviewer. I got out my note pad. In the course of the first scene I bothered to scribble “Adonis… before he gored by wild boar.” Then I gave up taking notes and gave in to my giggles because ‘Tales of Love and Sausages’ is really, really funny. Not in a deep, truthful, politically satirical, all you can do is laugh at the human tragedy sort of way. It’s funny because repetition, goofy faces, and masks with huge noses are funny; falling in love leads to ludicrous behavior and sausages make very useful metaphors.

Directed by Faction of Fools Theatre Company’s artistic director, Matthew R. Wilson, and teaching artist Toby Mulford, the show is performed in the style of Commedia dell’Arte.  Developed in 16th century Italy, the style asks an actor to create the physicality and personality of a specific character, or “Mask,” based on a more archetypal character.

There is not much in the way of plot in Commedia. Instead, an ensemble of such players is familiar with the outlines of many well-known scenarios, like two sets of lovers meeting in the woods, or incompetent servants attempting a basic chore. The “writing” or content of the scenes is largely improvised.  The program for Tales of Love and Sausages features seven scenes, four of which get played during each performance. So no two shows, no two combinations of scene, are ever exactly the same, and the work is truly created by all involved.

It’s obvious that some of the players in the nearly 30-member ensemble of ‘Love and Sausages’ have more experience with Commedia dell’Arte, and are therefore more comfortable in the style. The timing in some scenes is more spot-on than in others. Yet all the cast members are playful physical comedians, capable of delivering a lot of laughs. They also won’t hesitate for a moment to make sport with anyone wearing a bad shirt or sitting within reach of the stage. If you’re shy and easily embarrassed, stay clear of the aisles and first row. I’d love to include as many names here as possible, but as I said I was distracted from taking useful notes. Not to mention, there are more characters named Isabella, Flavio, and Zanni than anyone could be expected to keep track of.

It’s great fun to watch this group’s fancy foot and mask work and interesting to get a flavor for a theatrical style that is still influencing contemporary comedy.

See it if: You’re a theater geek, history buff, child-at-heart, hungry, horny, or too hot to play outdoors.

Skip it if: You like your humor dry as the Sahara; in that case Commedia might not be your thing.

Remaining Performances:
Sunday, July 13 @ 6:00 PM (The Universe)
Friday, July 18 @ 6:00 PM (Source)
Thursday, July 24 @ 8:00 PM (Source)

They say: “City Folk, a new improvised sitcom about the people you know, but don’t really want to. Over five nights audience members will drive the plot to create a pilot, a few filler episodes, and a series finale. Brand new episodes each night! You speak. We act! Save us from syndication!”

Brett’s take: Youngish improv group ATC (A Theater Company) has an intriguing concept: an improvised sitcom, with a completely different, sequential episode each performance. Whether or not they’re angling for followers to attend each show or not doesn’t matter, since a sitcom, of course, is designed to be jumped into with little background. What ATC does seem to be aiming for here is a modern commedia dell’arte, given the easy-to-follow stock-characters-and-plots format of the sitcom.

Trouble is, they’ve got the structure down pat, but lack the skill and substance to make it funny, or even particularly amusing. Five actors (with the program promising guest improvisers at some performances, but not saying which) take on an appropriate array of stock types: a pompous theater director and her slightly dimbulb producer, who are trying to run a theater company in the basement of a church populated by a nice-guy preacher, a sweet-and-naive choir singer and a wacky old monsignor. The group is funniest when they’re nailing sitcom tropes, like the look-at-the-camera-and-smile credits sequence.

However, the mechanics of plot and interaction (at my performance, the episode theme picked out of a hat was the ‘dream’ episode) produce little besides fumbling amateur improv. It didn’t help that at the performance I saw the plot ended up following the choir singer, who must have been brought in to sing a song or two (her voice is lovely) because her ‘acting’ mostly consisted of repeating the last line spoken to her in a higher pitch. Anu Yadav does deserve credit for milking as many laughs with her expressive face as she can given the sluggish proceedings.

If you do decide to see this show, I recommend waiting until they are at Source, because the inexperience of some of the cast shows as their voices are lost in the echo chamber that is the Universe.

See it if: You give an A for effort.

Skip it if: You’re holding out for the holy grail: the Hilarious Fringe Improv Show.