merelyplayers.org - 'Adventures In Mating' EastOfIndy.com Review

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'Adventures In Mating' EastOfIndy.com Review

8/27/08

EastOfIndy.com
by John Belden

I can’t believe they let me look at the script.

In yet another show in which the fourth wall barely exists, Merely Players, who had us laughing at a dead clown in their show last year, presents “Adventures in Mating” at ComedySportz.

A couple is on a blind date, and, of course, things aren’t going well. The waiter asks what wine the gentleman will select, and he’s tongue-tied. Ding! The waiter hits a bell, the other actors freeze, and he addresses the audience, alerting them that they will be choosing what happens in the following scene.

Red wine or white? Will she slap him or kiss him? Who will answer the phone? The occasional stops in the action to select from varying scenes are inspired by “choose your adventure” books. As for the “book” of this comic play, the waiter turns over a copy of the script to an audience member (by pure chance it was me at the performance I attended) to help in case the actors get lost in any of 60 possible scenes.

For me, it was as much fun to skim through the pages – yes, it was the actual script – as it was to follow the mayhem on stage.

And even without the gimmick, the show would have been worth it, as this longform skit had hilarious absurdity on par with the better scenes on Saturday Night Live, ably played with manic energy by these talented actors. I suspect only I noticed when lines were misremembered or dropped.