In Review

 

OK, Roshambo, Alternate Time Lines

 

 

By C.S. GILBERT

 

Roshambo, playing its final run this coming weekend at Key West Theater, is an exercise in alternate time lines, a variety of choices, and a mix of Key West characters to stun an audience with its outrageousness and, in the stunning, unleash howls of laughter. At least that’s what happened the night we were there.

 

In short, director Michael Marrero and his On the Rocks production company have done it again. This is a play of puzzling thematic import, clearly referencing the Japenese film Roshamon and the American icon of violence, Rambo. It was written primarily by Jon Rhoads with additions by talented Equity character actor/singer/J. B. McLendon and one Charlie Seidenberg, who may or may not be a real person, since I played his widow in a 2013 72-Hour Film Challenge directed by Marrero, and thus strongly suspect this is a pseudonym, although for whom only gods know.

 

With these caveats, this is an entertaining evening of theater. It is pure Key West – which occasionally means that the production is excellent but the play is, well, really weird. However, the performance by Pony Charvet as a psychopath (again?) is worth the price of admission. The hell of it is that all the other actors are very good as well: Lliam Dufresne, Mook J, Kelly Jane (who doubled as stage manager, a much tougher job), Chad Newman and Laura Richardson. As my tablemates Paul and Cindy, visitors from Upstate New York, observed, it was a major achievement to keep the lines straight, given the similar but divergent plot lines that changed with each scene.

 

My tablemates and I agreed, though, that we couldn’t understand half of what Mook J, in the character of Mr. Dijon, said. This was also a problem, occasionally, with other actors. Come on, guys: don’t sacrifice diction and comprehension for speed.

 

Nevertheless, the plot line(s) were clear enough and the adjustments demanded of the actors were very well handled, particularly Chad Newman as the robber and the inspector, and Charvet as the psycho employee and the dotty old woman. The transformation in Charvet, especially, was mind boggling. The man is amazing.

 

This newest local theater company continues to serve up a palatable product, from certainly digestible to absolutely yum yum. For a taste of true fringe Key West (the setting is Stock Island), catch Roshambo this weekend.

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