If laughter is good for digestion, then Drama Dock’s current production of “Inspecting Carol” is the perfect dessert after a big holiday meal. Directed by Drama Dock veteran Chaim Rosemarin, this repeat performance of Daniel Sullivan’s 1991 farce is becoming a seasonal classic for Vashon’s community theater company.
Timing is the lifeblood of successful comedy, and Rosemarin clearly used the troupe’s rather abbreviated rehearsal time to nail the actors’ comic timing. So even if lines are missed and props malfunction, the show maintains its winning comic pace. And because the plot is about theatrical mishaps, we in the audience never know the difference between real and scripted mishaps.
The play tells the tale of a small professional theater company in a midsize U.S. city that is desperate to sustain its dwindling funding with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The entire company turns to groveling of one sort or another when they mistake a would-be actor craving an audition for an informer from the NEA.
This year’s production takes advantage of some of Drama Dock’s most seasoned players, while it adds the energy of a few newbies to the ensemble. The resulting mix is a laugh-out-loud slapstick satire sure to pull a smile from the most obstinate of Scrooges.
Everyone in the cast of “Inspecting Carol” is clearly having a good time, and none more than veteran Rich Wiley as the wannabe actor around whom the farcical plot turns. Wiley’s character morphs from witless to — dare I say it? — wily as he discovers the power bestowed upon him by an accident of mistaken identity.
Dianna Ammon is over-the-top as the high-strung, eccentric director/producer of the struggling little theatre company willing to do anything to save her enterprise. Sue DeNies is wickedly witty as the company’s stage manager/human cattle prod and Pete Kreitner shows his softer side as the hapless victim of Ammon’s many charms. Gordon Millar and Patricia Kelly add comic sparkle as a clueless pair of theatrical has-beens.
Drama Dock newcomer Steven Tosterud makes the obnoxious likable and hilarious as the radical actor and aspiring playwright who nearly scuttles the company’s entire performance with his injections of social commentary. In his maiden stage role and diversion from stand-up comedy, Richard Moore is ably deadpan as the token minority cast member beleaguered by the company’s unconscious cultural ignorance. And Daniel Macca’s premiere Drama Dock performance as the company’s fraught business manager moves skillfully from tentative to hysterical with natural comic flare.
Supporting cast members Duncan Barlow, Kristen Wahanik and Zoe Barlow each prove there are no small parts in any play as they contribute personal panache to each of their characters.
Max Lopuszynski moves backstage as the play’s real- life stage manager and is capably supported by Michael Barker’s lighting design. Dom Wolczko is on sound, and Holly Godard, Trudy Rosemarin, Jenn Reidel and Boo Dinan-Slack are on production, promotion and advertising. Set design is by Michael Densmore.
Drama Dock’s 2014 version of “Inspecting Carol” proves the benefit of reinvention via repetition. In so doing, it offers a delightfully offbeat 90-minute cup of holiday cheer.
Please note: Some dialogue in the play contains language for mature audiences.
Performances will be held at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 26, and Saturday, Dec. 27. The matinee will be at
2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 28.
Tickets are $15 for adults, and $12 for students and seniors. Tickets are available at the Blue Heron, Heron’s Nest and at the door, depending upon availability.
