Excerpted from The Toledo Blade, Toledo, Ohio, Thursday, November 11, 2004
2 actors, 22 characters, lots of laughs
By NANCIANN CHERRY
BLADE STAFF WRITER
In the town of Tuna, Texas, Klan 249 is having its annual family night and skeet shoot; Petey Fisk is urging Tuna-ites to refrain from giving exotic pets as gifts because the humane society will end up with them "after the new wears off"; the Smut Snatchers are attempting to cleanse a local theatrical production of any innuendo, and the yard-display contest is under way.
It must be Christmas.
And it is, as the Village Players present A Tuna Christmas through Nov. 20.
The comedy, written by Joe Sears, Jaston Williams, and Ed Howard is a follow-up to Greater Tuna, about the eccentric characters in small-town Texas.
The gimmick is that two performers play all the roles. Filled with funny dialogue and even funnier situations, the comedy is a house of cards that will come tumbling down at the first missed line or cue. Fortunately, Norb Mills and Ed Burnham know what they're about.
The plot is throwaway: Someone is sabotaging the holiday yard displays in the town, and Stanley Bumiller (Mills), a local troublemaker, is getting blamed. But Stanley is doing community service and has witnesses to his whereabouts.
What keeps the laughs coming are the 22 characters, most of whom can be recognized from small-town life.
With radio announcers Thurston Wheelis (Burnham) and Arles Struvie (Mills) acting as ringmasters, we meet Dixie Deberry (Mills), the town secretary, who upholds the letter of the law without leniency; Carp (Mills), who fancies herself a town leader in all things social and moral; Bertha Bumiller (Burnham), who is trying to put on a happy face at Christmas despite her husband's drinking and philandering, the histrionics of her daughter, Charlotte, the probation of her son Stanley, and the pregnant cat of her son Jody (all Mills).
Didi Snavely (Mills) runs the local used weapons store, and her husband, R.R. (Burnham), tries to help, but he keeps being distracted by all the UFOs landing. And over at the Tastee Kreme, the randy waitresses Inita (Burnham) and Helen (Mills) try to keep the town fed.
Even more minor than the plot are the props. A table and chairs, a couple of Christmas trees, a counter, and some odds and ends are it. Everything else is indicated by mime, from coffeepots to telephones to a coyote.
Before the production, Village Players president Jean Mills said she wished she could turn the set around because what was going on behind the scenes was almost more fun than the antics onstage. Considering the quick changes of costumes and characters, Larry Farley and Debbie Marinik must have been more like backstage traffic cops than director and assistant director.
Mills and Burnham are delightful as they change personalities with seemingly little effort, and despite the hearty gales of laughter from the audience, this house of cards stayed firmly upright.
"A Tuna Christmas" continues through Nov. 20 in the Village Players Theater, 2740 Upton Ave. Show times are 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $14 for adults and $12 for seniors and students. Information: 419-472-6817.
Contact Nanciann Cherry at: ncherry@theblade.com or 419-724-6130.
Last Modified: 02/25/06