There's these two guys, you see, and they're roommates—they just don't know it yet. This is because Mr. Cox is a hatter who works days, while Mr. Box is a printer who works nights, and Mrs. Bouncer, their landlady, has discovered she can charge two rents for the same furnished apartment. To be sure, Mr. Cox has detected a lingering odor of cigar smoke in his quarters, and Mr. Box has noticed that his supply of candles and coal diminishes at a precipitous rate, but both attribute these occurrences to their proprietor's intrusions--or perhaps the reclusive gent renting the upstairs room. When we think of Victorian farce, the first—and often, only—plays that come to mind are The Importance of Being Earnest and Charley's Aunt, but coming in a close third in popularity is Box and Cox, John Maddison Martin's short-and-giddy lesson in forging unity, reconciliation and literal fraternity after putting aside differences. Under the direction of Donterrio Johnson, Eustice C. Williams, John Marshall, Jr, and drag-diva Shalita Cake maintain a crisp Wildean tempo while swapping repartee from a stage configured for safely-distant chamber presentation. Running at a brisk 40 minutes, this PrideArts production is one in a festival of gilded-age comedies that includes the rarely-done A Pair of Lunatics, by W.R. Walkes, and Anton Chekhov's classic The Proposal. In these tension-riddled times, what could be more therapeutic than a quick, no-agenda laugh?
