Humor in `Sealed' arises from serious stuff.Byline: Paul Denison The Register-Guard On his way out of the door with his bowling bag in hand, Richard knocks the pins out from under his wife, Bonnie bon·ny also bon·nie adj. bon·ni·er, bon·ni·est Scots 1. Physically attractive or appealing; pretty. 2. Excellent. , who has just chided him for playing too much attention to younger women - including his son's girlfriend - and too little to her. You're still the same girl I married, he tells her; you just don't look like her. Her husband's casually cruel jibe hits Bonnie hard, and she has to wipe away tears as her first guest arrives for a very important Tupperware party n. 1. a social gathering at which the host (or more typically hostess) entertains the guests, and provides them with an opportunity to order Tupperware. This was used as an effective sales strategy by the Tupperware manufacturer, and provided income to the host(ess) from , a girls-only night that Richard has just mocked as a lesbian event, figuring that anytime women get together by themselves they must be doing something subversive. It's a comic line, but it's right on the money in a more serious sense. What Bonnie and her five friends end up doing is subverting each other's sense of well-being. Doug Stone's "Sealed for Freshness," which is having its West Coast premiere in an Actors Cabaret of Eugene production directed by Joe Zingo, is subtitled sub·ti·tle n. 1. A secondary, usually explanatory title, as of a literary work. 2. A printed translation of the dialogue of a foreign-language film shown at the bottom of the screen. tr.v. "A Tupperware Party Gone Awry a·wry adv. 1. In a position that is turned or twisted toward one side; askew. 2. Away from the correct course; amiss. See Synonyms at amiss. ." It goes awry both hilariously and wrenchingly. Five ostensibly os·ten·si·ble adj. Represented or appearing as such; ostensive: His ostensible purpose was charity, but his real goal was popularity. different women find out, sadly, that they have much more in common than a penchant for plastic containers. "Sealed for Freshness" is a side-splitting comedy with a deeply serious side. Zingo and his cast played both sides just right in Saturday night's performance at the ACE Annex, with the play's author in the audience. Bonnie, discontented dis·con·tent·ed adj. Restlessly unhappy; malcontent. dis  con·tent after 20 years of marriage, is at the heart of
things the way an eye is at the heart of a hurricane. Mindy Nirenstein
plays her depressed character in low-key way, almost with flat affect
but with great comic effect and empathy. In this cast, she's a
minimalist min·i·mal·ist n. 1. One who advocates a moderate or conservative approach, action, or policy, as in a political or governmental organization. 2. A practitioner of minimalism. adj. 1. among maximalists. Storm Kennedy plays Diane, an upbeat but uptight Tupperware saleswoman, and Marla Norton is Jean, a tightly wound local Tupperware organizer. The source of the tension in both cases is Jean's sister, Sinclair, a hugely pregnant maximum earth mother, played by Christine Cody. Sinclair's caustically scornful attitude offends everyone, including Tracy (Katie McClatchey), a dim-bulb newlywed who takes Tupperware very seriously. You can tell right away that this is a volatile mix, that nothing good can happen when they break the rule against drinking at Tupperware parties. But something very good does happen, for the audience, even though much of it is predictable. It's obvious that the gasoline puddles in the driveway are a Chekovian "gun that must go off," that Diane has a painful secret, that martini-fueled Sinclair will attack everyone in sight and that somebody in the group will counterattack Attacking an attacker. Even though a criminal hacker or other agent is attempting to penetrate a security perimeter or damage systems, the counterattack must not violate applicable laws. . It's obvious, in short, that each of these women is unhappy in her own way. In a preperformance interview with The Register-Guard arts reporter Fred Crafts, Stone said that "You can't have comedy without resonance. It just seems empty." In both their silliness and their sadness, the characters in "Sealed for Freshness" seemed to resonate res·o·nate v. res·o·nat·ed, res·o·nat·ing, res·o·nates v.intr. 1. To exhibit or produce resonance or resonant effects. 2. strongly with the mostly female audience Saturday night, although men were laughing just as hard, even at some anatomical humor humor, according to ancient theory, any of four bodily fluids that determined man's health and temperament. Hippocrates postulated that an imbalance among the humors (blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile) resulted in pain and disease, and that good health was that was at their gender's expense. Playwright Stone, director Zingo, the five women and the token male (Richard Leebrick) seem to have found just the right balance and pacing to make this essentially serious stuff disarmingly funny. Norton and McClatchy's characters stay pretty much the same, but Nirenstein, Kennedy and Cody have to show more layers of their characters. They have the chops, and Stone could do worse than take all three to New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of for the off-Broadway production he plans next spring. Cody is like a force of nature on stage. Her moment of truth is the most dramatic - and leads to the most hilarious - but Nirenstein and Kennedy are equally effective with more understated approaches. All five characters throw light, from different angles, on issues of careers, marriage, motherhood, love and self-realization that women wrestle with when their men go bowling. Paul Denison is the assistant features editor of The Register-Guard. THEATER REVIEW Sealed for Freshness When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and Nov. 6-8 and 14-15; matinee mat·i·nee or mat·i·née n. An entertainment, such as a dramatic performance or movie, presented in the daytime, usually in the afternoon. at 2 p.m. Sunday Where: Actors' Cabaret of Eugene's Annex Theater, 39 W. 10th Ave. How much: Evenings $12, matinee $10, through the theater box office (683-4368) |
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