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| The System of Dr Tarr And Professor Fether
April 15, 2008
By Ronni Reich
As a multimedia exhibit, The System of Dr Tarr and Professor Fether at Theater for the New City can be considered moderately successful. As a play, it cannot.
The adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's short story, directed by Candice Burridge, depicts an insane asylum in southern France in which the patients have staged a coup, imprisoned the administrators, taken advantage of the wine supply, and become engaged in a never-ending dinner. Each patient-turned-captor has a unique neurosis — Ma'm'selle La Place wants to be cut up like a piece of cheese, Bouffon Le Grand laments that he cannot be a pinch of snuff, and Madame Joyeuse is sure she is a chicken.
The actors in these roles — Lissa Moira, Charles Battersby, and Ellen Steier — make the most of their opportunities to cavort, scream, and squawk. But those efforts seem wasted when surrounded by bright, well-crafted life-sized hand puppets — a frog, a pumpkin man, a human teapot — that do the job almost as well and to better visual effect. The ambience grows stranger with the addition of music by Jon Vomit — scratches and simulated organ.
Those with more opportunities to act do nothing to bolster the thin drama surrounding the dinner: A naive man wanders into the asylum, and Maillard, the new man in charge, gives him a tour. This story line is alternately carried out by shadow puppets and live actors. The puppets, antique-looking cutouts moved by visible arms, at least have a kitschy, do-it-yourself charm that culls a few laughs. Perhaps Dan Drogynous as the visitor is going for a related so-bad-it's-good style of acting. Zen Mansley as Maillard fares better; his booming voice and grandiose gestures suit the part.
But both look just right, Drogynous pale and gaunt in the gothic style director Burridge cultivates and Mansley stunningly bizarre in a white mustache that hangs to his navel.
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