Mothballed
Feasting On Cardigans
By Mark Eisman
Directed by Amy Henault
Oberon Theatre Ensemble/Midtown International Theatre
Festival
WorkShop Theater Mainstage
Equity showcase (closed)
Review by Charles Battersby
In Feasting On Cardigans, a
massive moth infestation hits New York City, sending sweater-wearers into a
panic. Haff (Ian Pfister) is an
exterminator who suddenly finds his services in demand, not just as a professional
bug killer, but also as a father figure.
Haff and his fiancée, Lenah (Kate
Sandberg), have agreed never to have children, but Haff befriends a boy,
Duncan (Tyler Samuel Lee), whose
father is in prison, and becomes the lad's mentor. The two share a love for
bugs, and both suffer persecution from a society frustrated by the moth
invasion. When not watching his relationship with Lenah wither, or bonding with
Duncan, Haff also finds himself involved in a complicated relationship with his
exterminating partner, Rose Marie (Virginia
Callaway), much to the chagrin of his fiancée.
By the end of the show, everything manages to work out just fine for
everyone, in a conclusion that seems a bit too happy, and little too easy. The
problem is that there's not much reason to think that things won't work out fine; there just isn't a
whole lot of conflict or drama going on, either in the text, or with the
direction. There are a couple of plot twists, but they aren't particularly
twisty and are rather predictable. The play just strides along, directly to the
most obvious conclusion. Compounding this is the fact that ...Cardigans moves extremely slowly, with lots of talky dialog,
giving the audience plenty of time to ruminate on what might be coming next,
and how it will all end up.
Although it's less than an hour-and-a-half in length, it felt longer,
mainly due to the stiff performances (Ian Pfister gave a noticeably
better performance than the rest of the cast, though). Surely director Amy Henault is equally responsible for
the wooden acting style, since it was omnipresent for the entire show.
Henault’s direction also overplayed the comedy in the beginning of the show,
then tried to turn things serious at the end (a flaw also present in Mark Eisman’s script too). There were
some shifts in the style of drama too, like a couple of asides thrown in, which
stuck out awkwardly, not fitting the tone of the rest of the play.
Set design (not credited) mostly consisted of a couch and table, but there
was one nifty scene where a huge puppet representing the Japanese movie monster
Mothra appeared in a closet (puppet design not credited). Costumes were
acceptable, but nothing particularly interesting. The sound and lighting were
standard fare as well (lighting by Carolyn
Sarkis).
A show about a plague of insects, and with so many references to Mothra,
ought to have been a bit more exciting, but Feasting
on Cardigans turned out to be a project that might have been better off
left in the closet and moth-balled.
Writing: 1
Directing: 1
Acting: 1
Set: 1
Costumes: 1
Lighting/Sound: 1
Return to Volume Eleven, Number Index
Return to Volume Eleven Index
Return to Home Page
Copyright 2005 Charles Battersby