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'Dark Ride' is tangled journey
(by Herb Hammer - May 27, 2010)
THEATER, BY HERB HAMMER
'Dark Ride' is tangled journey
Several decades ago, Euclid Beach Park, a well-known Cleveland landmark, disappeared only to be replaced by apartment buildings. The park had a popular boat ride called the Tunnel of Love and another walk-through attraction labeled the Fun House. Each had sudden turns with surprises along the way meant to be scary and to ultimately make you laugh.
Len Jenkin's "Dark Ride" has somewhat the same effect. Even the title suggests this. Convergence-Continuum, the popular Tremont theater company, is performing this 1981 Off-Broadway success in its limited space at the Liminis on Scranton Road.
The success of "Dark Ride" is achieved mostly by the enormously talented cast at the Liminis and the imaginary directing of Geoff Hoffman. The play depends on this combination, for the script itself leads the audience on a frenzy of amusement-park attractions. Once you step off the ride, you're not sure what really happened.
The opening appears to make some sense. A scholarly translator is given an ancient manuscript. His job is to explore its meaning. This, however, has nothing to do with the insane story that follows.
Mr. Jenkin's characters include a sideshow nut who carries a mummy he claims to be John Wilkes Booth, a waitress at a diner offering no food, for the cook doesn't really cook, an Army general who talks in a jumble of senseless monologues and a jeweler who is robbed of a precious stone by a young thief.
The coincidence-obsessed matron, played with comic silliness by Lucy Bredeson-Smith, provides many of the laughs, as does Michael Regnier, as a certifiable occultist.
Stuart Hoffman, as the cookless cook, and Lauran B. Smith, as the waitress, add to the fun.
The trouble is "Dark Ride" isn't always fun. The constant confusion with its convoluted plot with twists and turns is too much work. And though there is a story that ties some of the mayhem together, closing at an occultist convention in Mexico City is too little and too late.
The general and the jeweler have kidnapped the jewel thieves' girlfriend and have brought her to the convention. The wordplay mostly goes nowhere and does nothing to enhance the play. Surely the gags add to Mr. Jenkin's ride of constant confusion, but nothing follows the straight line most audiences require before becoming bored.
Tom Kondilas' upstage projections provide some real entertainment, especially the oversized front page of a Mexico City newspaper, where the grinning kidnapped girls' picture is plastered on the cover.
Sade Wolfkitten and Scott Gorbach add to the hilarious moments with a grand array of eccentric costumes.
If Mr. Jenkin's intent is to lose us in a tangled journey through an old-fashioned amusement-park ride, he has succeeded. He leads us on a discombobulated journey and has attempted to pull everything together only to lose us again at the finish.
Though "Dark Ride" is loaded with laughs, there are too many nonsensical dead spots that may not keep you hanging on.
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