'Three Big Couches'
'Kingpin'
Rated PG-13
Pat Varga, Laurie Logan and Phyllis Lewis star in Three Big Couches, running in
repertory with other original comedies through Aug. 11 at Meadow Brook.
n Playscape '96, the Heartlande er. To me you're a cripple."
Funny line? Yes and no. Au-
Theatre Company's production
of Three Big Couches is about thors James and Bronwyn Jame-
that nearly universal struggle son know how to fuss up a scene,
to break away from our parents, build the tension, catch our ear,
become adults on our own, err, but then they seem ambivalent
about punchlines.
come to grips with life,
The Jamesons pile on
and then, God help us,
the data, adding fuel to
become like them.
the drama's fire. The sis-
On the nattily snug lit-
ters are man-eaters, cas-
tle set the Heartlande
trators, dysfunctional.
Theatre Company has
The sisters are cute
built in the center of
ladies who cure with
Meadow Brook's stage,
cookies, are adorable
some 50 of us sat. Three
MICH AEL H.
ditzes — Arsenic and
couches, center stage in
MAR GOLIN
Old Chintz.
a "U," greet us. Each is
SPECIA L TO THE
At the end of the play,
home and roost for three
JEWIS H NEWS
Paulie is breakin' out,
sisters — Teesa, Stella
leavin' the nest — but
and Ruthie — living together, im-
Tommy
is
comin' back, with his
itating grains of sand in an oyster
two kids. And one of the sisters
existence
The roof over their heads is says, "Dreams are for dreamers;
dreamers we're not." This
Ruthie's, a widow and
comedy has a heart of stone
mother hen. She invites
THEATER
and anger. The play re-
the brood in — not only
solves
neither the sadness
sis and sis (one a widow,
one divorced), but her 30-year-old nor the conflict.
There were some admirable
son Paulie, still home and waited
on hand and foot; Stella's son performances. As Paulie, Jim
Steven, now a paraplegic; and Shanley is likable. Well, laugh-
soon, Tommy, Teesa's son, whose able. Shanley plays him for laughs
wife Debbie (the "choir slut," ac- — a good idea. Steven, trying to
cording to Teesa) goes to choir break out of his mold and his
practice where she's having an af- chair, is played with affective guile
by Peter Edward Hopp, and his
fair.
Each couch is unique: one has love scene with Ellen (Mary E.
afghans and a pillow which says Rychlewski) is honest and touch-
"Moms Make Memories." Anoth- ing.
As the sisters, Laurie V. Logan,
er is floral-covered. Another has
Phyllis
Lewis and Pat Varga turn
wood turnings and a velvet throw.
The three women are cut from in competent performances, but
the same fabric. And this is where there is only so far an actress can
the trouble begins. First for their rise above inhibiting material.
sons, who are never allowed too John Seibert, the director, has
far off their emotional leashes. "I'm made effective use of the space in
physically challenged," Steven the uncredited set.
whines to Stella. "Pm your moth-
DETR OIT J EWISH
I
UJ
92
for throwing strikes. Roy figures it any less funny. This is a film
he can train Ishmael to compete that unabashedly aims to provoke
in a Las Vegas tournament and laughs at any cost, offering jokes
lthough Kingpin is a movie split the million-dollar prize.
calculated to offend just about
that centers on the world of
After infiltrating the segregat- everybody.
high-stakes bowling, the film ed farm world, Roy convinces Ish-
Many of the stunts fail, just as
has the feel of a second- mael to forego his Amish ways many succeed, and several se-
rate boxer. Instead of throwing and compete for the big prize. On quences are so gross that one
punches from all angles, it throws the road to Vegas, they en-
must choose to either sur-
punchlines — relentlessly, crude- counter the voluptuous
render to the onslaught
ly and, on occasion, quite effec- Vanessa Angel, who adds
or retreat to safety. It is
MOVIES
tively.
a little brains and a lot of
during these inspired
Woody Harrelson plays Roy beauty to the entourage.
moments that one is thank-
Munson, an Iowa bowling cham- Naturally, the film culminates in ful for the darkness of the theater,
pion who was on his way to na- a showdown at the tournament so that the belly laughs can rage
tional prominence when he had against old nemesis, Big Ernie anonymously.
the misfortune of getting entan- McCracken.
Kingpin is certainly not a film
gled with bowling hustler Big
Kingpin is directed by Peter for everyone, but if you enjoy hu-
Ernie McCracken (Bill Murray). and Bobby Farrelly who brought mor from the gutter, then this
Big Em convinces Roy that all the us the inane Dumb and Dumber, film is right up your alley.
real bowlers on the pro tour sup- but don't let that alone scare you
plement their income by hustling off. Yes, the humor in Kingpin is
unwary locals and, when his first more often sophomoric than so-
scam backfires, Big Ern sneaks phisticated, but that doesn't make
— Richard Halprin
off with their winnings while the
locals feed Roy's bowling
hand into the ball return.
Seventeen years later,
we find Roy, an impover-
ished alcoholic with a goofy
prosthetic hand, living in
a dive just around the cor-
ner from skid row. Having
no money to pay the rent,
he is forced to satisfy the
urges of his repulsive land-
lady, a quid pro quo of
sorts.
Things are looking grim
for Roy until, one day at
the bowling alley, he hap-
pens upon Ishmael (Randy
Quaid), a dim-witted
Amish fellow with a knack
Richard Halprin is an
entertainment attorney
with a background in
film studies.
n.
Adventures
tting
of Pi> occhio
Woody Harrelson, Vanessa Angel and Randy Quaid plan to bowl everyone over with their
scam.
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