Within an empty four-walls of a theater stage, once the ghost light goes off, George Spelvin at center stage is told by Meg, probably a stage manager, that he’s about to play the hero in a Noel Coward play. That’s it, and suddenly a scene is erected around him. To say Scott Kulper’s “hero” is perplexed would be the most under of dramatic understatements. But this is a comedy, and so anything--resembling plays of Shakespeare through Samuel Beckett--goes.
Jillian Courtney’s supposed Sarah Siddons gets bountifully bitchy, like Tallulah Bankhead, as she exposes to George (though not by that name) what is supposed to be their new private lives on a balcony. Problem: Meg (Danielle Renella, utterly upset) shows up as George’s former or maybe not so former wife. That’s how things go for George, whether he’s confused by Kelly Elizabeth Smith’s supposed Ellen Terry or sent on a Shakespearian path by Mike Perez’s substantial Henry Irving.
Before George has got his character up to Thomas More on the gallows where Wyatt McNeil’s dire masked Executioner threatens immediate action, Scott Kulper takes the stage and owns it through a hilarious mishmash of quotations from Shakespearean plays. He keeps calling for “Line!” but Meg will never help him out. I was surprised that no one in the audience did. I guess everyone was laughing too hard! Director Greg Leaming keeps the confusion going from one stage to another, on all of which his actors--with the star being Scott Kulper’s George--acquit themselves well. The technical staff make all their specialties seem easier than they are, since the production comes off so smoothly. <I>The Actor's Nightmare</I> makes for a fine Conservatory Season beginning!
