The life of a comfortable suburban couple becomes unraveled in A. R. Gurney's The Fourth Wall, the season opener for Milwaukee Chamber Theater. This company, in its quest to find something to please everyone, has staged productions ranging from avant-garde Off-Broadway fare to time-honored plays. The Fourth Wall seems ideally suited to this theater's mission, as it contains everything in one show: surrealism, naturalism, sentimentality and side-splitting comedy.
In the Off-Broadway production of this play, the middle-aged couple was played by the permanently befuddled Charles Kimbrough, and his wife by the perky Sandy Duncan. That gives one some idea of what is about to happen. Here, we are treated to one of Milwaukee's best-known actors, Norman Moses, as Roger, the husband. Kay Stiefel plays his wife, Peggy. As mentioned previously, their well-ordered lives become unglued when Peggy decides to redecorate the living room. Oddly, she places all the furniture to face a large blank wall (the real-life "fourth wall" that separates actors from the audience). As if this weren't odd enough, people entering the living room begin to talk in dialogue, not normal conversation.
This sets up the opening scene, one of the funniest in the show. Norman Moses (Roger) and a visiting family friend, gloriously played by Angela Iannone (Julia), step in the living room at Roger's urging. Their overly dramatic gestures and odd conversation (which Julia nails as the "exposition") is more than Roger can bear. At one point, the exhausted Roger complains that he's "forced to come up with interesting conversation." Julia, in an attempt to overshadow Roger, suggests they move into the bedroom for a little romp. She promises that this will spice up the action. In another scene between the two women, Peggy goes to fetch Roger and Julia barks that he had better "be snappy," so that she wouldn't have to spend much time doing "boring stage business."
The play has been updated several times since it was written in 1992. To keep the political references topical, the script has been revised so that George W. Bush the younger rather than his dad, now bears the brunt of Gurney's putdowns. Why is the president involved? Well, the daffy wife is convinced that Bush is trying to kill her. This begins an endless bout of Bush-bashing that no doubt will sit better with Democrats than Republicans in the audience. Not to fear, however. Before the play is over, Gurney pokes fun at academics, New Yorkers, suburbanites, playwrights (particularly G.B. Shaw) and "health nuts."
In the skilled hands of director Bill Theisen, the play manages to keep its balance throughout. Both Moses and Iannone make the most of their characters and they are great fun to watch. Sadly, the play sags after about the first 45 minutes. Gurney attempts to revive the action by introducing a new character, a drama professor (Rick Pendzich). But this play is still very much a work-in-progress. Through no fault of the cast, Fourth Wall cannot seem to consistently engage the audience. Even the miraculous player piano, which seems to have an endless variety of Cole Porter tunes in its repertoire, bores a bit after the third song or so.
The action is played out on a sumptuous set (after all, the set almost becomes a "character" in itself). Costumes are convincing without being distracting, and the lighting is subdued without being overly "stagey."
