Tom Dudzick and Evansville Civic Theatre shot for the stars with
Dudzick's "King O' the Moon."
Both fell short of their targets
in Friday's opening of this 10-years-after sequel to Dudzick's
"Over the Tavern," which enjoyed a more effective production at
Civic last season.
Like "Over the Tavern," Dudzick's new play is another TV
sitcom-styled blending of drama and comedy that reprises many of
the characters from the earlier title. That show revolved around
12-year-old Rudy's impetuous, comic rebellion against Roman
Catholicism and his school's intimidating head nun, pulling in
ancillary issues including his father's mercurial temper, his
brother's mental retardation and his siblings' adolescent
anxieties.
A decade later, and five years after the death of Rudy's
father, Chet, the rest of the family is still alive, but few
have evolved much in this contrived sequel.
"King O' the Moon" brings some of the previous story's issues
into play in an unlikely, eccentric annual family reunion, a
"state of the family" backyard picnic in which an alternating
member (Rudy's up this year) of the family looks to the heavens
and delivers an annual report to the spirit of the family
patriarch.
Catholicism is still an issue for Rudy, who, as a 22-year-old
seminarian, is still questioning and joking about his church's
dogma. Except for his mentally handicapped brother, Georgie, who
still has the intellect and emotions of a 5-year-old, his
siblings have moved on in life, but haven't progressed much
emotionally.
Rudy's sister, Annie, agitates over her dismal marriage to a
model railroad fanatic. His brother, Eddie, a draftee, has a
pregnant wife and marching orders for Vietnam, but he's still
caught up in boyish sibling rivalry with Rudy.
Their stories play against the backdrop of the Vietnam War,
the Civil Rights Movement and the first manned lunar landing,
which plays on the television throughout the show.
It all just seems too much to juggle for everyone, from
Dudzick to director C. Lynn Kinkade and his eight-member cast of
community players.
The script waxes with symbols and issues, but without any
real depth in this sitcom styling. That's compounded and
confounded with some strange set pieces, such as the child's
tree house Eddie obsesses over or the fence Rudy makes his
entrance over and Georgie feels compelled to scale.
Rudy's wrestling with faith, vocation and his feelings about
the Vietnam War lacks conviction in the script and in Andrew
York's performance. It all just seems like fodder for his glib
one-liners, delivered with no sense of irony.
As Eddie, Michael Hancock does a better job of evoking the
young soldier's fears on the eve of combat, but it's only for
one scene inserted, it seems, for effect and then forgotten.
Eddie seems more engaged in his sibling rivalry with Rudy than
with the prospect of fatherhood and war.
Lisa Garrett is the family's only solid figure as Ellen,
Chet's widow. She takes everything in stride with a practical,
patient, forthrightness.
And, while burdened with some contrived dialogue about
extrasensory perceptions clearly written in as a plot gimmick,
Gary Olson managed to convey an engaging sense of humorous
humanity as Walter, the tavern manager who yearns to be more
than just an employee.
The show, which played to an opening audience of 107, could
have been an improbable situation comedy TV pilot, except for
its length. It ran two hours and 25 minutes, with one
intermission.
