For the farewell run of A Tuna Christmas winding up after its 13 years as a popular seasonal offering, Actors Theater of Louisville has mounted the handsomest production I've ever seen of this wildly funny two-hander.
Paul Owen's adaptable set appropriately mirrors an old-fashioned radio for the opening scene at the 225-watt station OKKK, where down home announcers Thurston Wheelis and Arles Struvie (Warren Kelley and Brad DePlanche, who play all 22 characters populating Tuna, the third-smallest town in Texas) are hyping coming Christmas activities.
Later, it shifts panels to become the abode, among others, of Bertha Bumiller whose problem children and errant husband are playing havoc with her Christmas. Later still, it morphs into the drive-in restaurant where raunchy waitresses Helen Bedd and Inita Goodwin reign supreme amid the chaos. These people, redneck to the core, are easy marks for ridicule and cheap laughs, but playwrights Jaston Williams, Joe Sears, and Ed Howard make them so recognizably human beneath their outrageousness that they're rather endearing.
Old familiar highlights from shows past retain their potency. Didi Snavely with her used weapons shop promotes her wares as Christmas gifts, declaring "If we can't kill it, it's immortal." Her browbeaten husband, R. R., finally gets to board one of the flying saucers he often sees. That comes in a surreal sound and light scene.
Vera Carp, who with Bertha Bumiller leads the Smut Snatchers organization in a campaign to clean up language in A Christmas Carol, has won the town's yard display contest for 15 years. But a mysterious "phantom" has been vandalizing displays and now attacks Vera's, wrecking her chances to retire with a trophy. The drive-in girls take the prize with their naughty cowboy theme.
DePlanche is particularly good as young Petey Fisk, who rescues animals and suffers their bites. He also has fine moments as obnoxious Vera Carp.
Kelley magically creates the older female characters Bertha Bumiller and palsied Aunt Pearl Burrus, who gets around with a walker and uses a slingshot to shoot pesky blue jays in her yard. He also hilariously portrays Joe Bob Lipsey, the queenly community playhouse director who once put on an all-white production of A Raisin in the Sun.
Together the two men -- DePlanche as Arles Struvie, the lonely divorced station manager, and Kelley as Bertha bring the play to a touching close with their tentative liquor-fueled dance at the OKKK Christmas party.
Bill McKinley & Brad DePlanche
