Sometimes, a good play is judged by whether it makes you want to laugh and cry at the same time. However, Bialystock and Bloom goes one better in its production of Nicky Silver's Fat Men in Skirts. In this case, the audience often wants to laugh, cry and throw up -- simultaneously! This is accomplished when two of the play's characters, a mother and her tweenage son, resort to cannabalism after they survive a plane wreck. (Naturally, the plane goes down on a remote, deserted island.) At first, Phyllis (Laura Neuser Monagle) seems more concerned about the condition of her high-heeled Manolo Blahnik pumps than about her future. As she muses over their options, her 11-year-old son, Bishop (Jason Economus), distracts her by recalling mindless trivia about his idol, Katharine Hepburn. To get him out of her hair, Phyllis waves him off with the line, "go play with the dead bodies." Unfortunately, he does.
Fast-forward five years. The pair is miraculously rescued. They return home to an adulterous husband/father (Dylan Bolin) and his young, sexy mistress (Abbey Siegworth). To make matters worse, the father convinces his mistress to temporarily pose as his maid until he can gently break the news to his wife. As events become stranger and stranger, this rampantly dysfunctional family struggles to maintain its own warped version of "family values." During the course of the play, Nicky Silver touches on nearly every taboo -- from cannabalism and adultery (as previously mentioned), to incest, foul language and a politically incorrect view of mental illness. (Interestingly, despite the play's title, the one thing you won'ts see is cross-dressing men. The title is drawn from a character's dream.) The ridiculously outlandish events portrayed in Fat Men in Skirts lend themselves to comparisons with the work of Pinter, Albee and even Joe Orton. Although Silver may not yet have reached this exalted category, his work is certainly worth seeing.
Credit for this impeccably cast production goes to director Tom Klubertanz. Laura Monagle gives a brilliant performance as the mother, Phyllis. Whether portraying Phyllis as a meek dimwit or a ball-busting corporate vice president, Monagle convinces us that Phyllis can make this unlikely transition. She must casually flip off raucously funny lines such as this one (said to her stranded son when he complains of being hungry): "Eat some seaweed. It's sushi." On the island or in the city, Phyllis always seems to be in the center of things. Whether terrorized by her increasingly aggressive son (who "goes native" on the island) or her cheating husband, Monagle elevates Phyllis to a higher level. Jason Economus, who plays Bishop, is a gift from UW-Milwaukee's theater training program. He embraces his Oedipal character with such fierce abandon that one can only imagine the heights this young actor will achieve.
As the father, Dylan Bolin shines in an underwritten part. Bolin is particularly effective in showing the father's struggle between his allegiance to his wife and son, and his obvious affection for his mistress. Abbey Siegworth is a stitch in both of her roles: as the clingy mistress and, later, as a teddy bear toting, manic-depressive cheerleader. Costumes enhance the evening's wacky hilarity. The mother and son's strategically tattered island wear remind one of "Gilligan's Island." Musical interludes also reflect the evening's mood by veering from the musical "South Pacific" to rock tunes by Pink Floyd.
