LOS ANGELES TIMES
October 17, 2003
THEATER BEAT
"Black comedy" usually refers to darkness in the
material, not the race of the artists. Both connotations apply to "The
Offering," Gus Edwards' perversely fascinating 1977 play about two couples
confined to a small New York apartment. While owing a debt to Pinter, Albee and
even Bunuel, Edwards ("Louie & Ophelia") has a curious, acerbic
theatrical voice all his own.
Indeed, the originality and unpredictability of Edwards' writing
is the best reason to see this imperfect production, the first by NoHo's Riprap
Studio Theatre. Director Charles Weldon heads the cast as Big Bob Tyrone, a
former grifter now retired to catatonic TV watching and monosyllabic exchanges
with his sullen wife, Princess (Sandra Maria Nutt). We never find out what put
these two into such a funk; even when visited by glad-handing Martin
(Christopher Warren), a former protege in crime, and his Vegas showgirl squeeze
(Katia Bokor), Bob and Princess act like zombies.
Or like vampires. Soon the older couple warily awakens to the
newcomers, and the game is on. Things twist and turn into absurdities that are
nearly implausible but always compelling, and often shockingly funny.
The turns could be a lot sharper. Some of the would-be Pinter-esque
pauses feel more like the dead air of soap opera close-ups; some scenes that
should simmer to a boil just evaporate. Warren and Nutt share an intense,
enigmatic standoff, and Weldon neatly embodies the play's strange appeal as an
old-timer who's somehow both funny and frightening, both unsympathetic and utterly
watchable.
"The Offering,"
Riprap Entertainment in association with Alumni of the Negro Ensemble Company,
Riprap Studio Theatre, 5755 N. Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood.
Thursdays-Sundays, 8 p.m. Ends Dec. 7 (no performances Nov. 27-28). $20. (818)
990-7498; after 6 p.m., (818) 763-8345. 2 hours, 10 minutes.