By MIKE DUNHAM
Fourplay: Missy & Lindsay Lamar rehearsing Arlitia Jones' "Shoe Story." Photo, Aaron Wiseman.
The latest edition of Three Wise Moose Productions’ “Fourplay” opened at Anchorage Community Theatre, 1133 E. 70th, as ACT’s production of “Arsenic and Old Lace” was wrapping up.
The four plays by local Alaskans include new work by Arlitia Jones, “Shoe Story,” in which two women, a grocery clerk (played by Missy — only using one name) and a delusional street person (Lindsay Lamar), discuss footwear. It lasts like 5 minutes or less, an exquisitely poetic duet that ends on an unresolved chord but with the strong feeling that something has happened.
Dawson Moore’s “Living with the Savage” involves a wealthy divorcee (Charlotte Campbell) whose spoiled children (Danielle Rabinovitch and Brian Lyke) object when she brings home a spear-wielding, loincloth clad relic of the stone age (Rod Mehrtens) as her new boyfriend. Mehrtens’ appearance and antics make for much hilarity, all the funnier since his English vocabulary is limited to two phrases. But it also raises the question of just what is a “savage.”
“The Cross,” by Schatzie Schaefers, was the weakest item in the lineup. An independent movie director (Jill Sowerwine) runs afoul of her boorish money man (David Haynes) when he insists she find a part for his hapless nephew (Scottie Heverling). Within the first minute you can tell how this is going to end and it’s not particularly rewarding.
The high point of the night is “The Big Guy,” by Tom Moran of Fairbanks. It’s a half-hour monologue for Haynes, who portrays Godzilla, popping up in Tokyo yet again, knocking down buildings and flinging vehicles around as he tries to explain to the audience — and himself — why he’s the way he is.
This Godzilla reads The New Yorker and knows pertinent parts of the Japanese Constitution. He tells us about his youth in the Jurassic ‘hood. His confrontations with other super-monsters. His love life. Amusing lines deliver serious ideas. The resolution is notably uplifting and the final line is one of the best since Dickens.
“Fourplay” will be presented at 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays through Nov. 13. It’s well worth the $15 ticket, which you can get at actalaska.org or by calling 868-4913.
