This comic knock-off of Ibsen’s “Peer Gynt” is overstuffed and undernourished, like a super-size fed junk food fanatic who is all fat and no muscle.
The excellent comic actor R. Hamilton Wright, just about head-and-shoulders above the crowd of actors working big theaters in Seattle, is force-fed hideous lines, spewing them out like . . . well, a scene where his Peer Gynt has to drink elk urine and can’t keep it down comes to mind.
Wright’s Peer is one of the settlers of Alki, the brithplace of Seattle; if you’re looking for historical interest, go to that fancy new library, as there’s not much factual depth here. There is some very nice Northwestern scenery projected on the backdrops, otherwise not much that rings true to Seattle of any time period, let alone its roots.
All that would be easily forgiven and forgotten if this play was funny, but it rarely gets beyond amusing, and is lucky to get there at that.
It’s astounding to wonder how awful this would be in the hands of a lesser director; even with Beattie’s furious pace, the first act clocks in at just under 90 minutes. This would be forgivable, if this was Shakespeare, or O’Neill, or, say, actually IBSEN. But, no, it’s Overmyer, who writes as if ACT was paying him by the word.
Overmyer’s bio says “He now teaches play and screenwriting at the Yale Drama School”; hard to believe, but then perhaps this hideously over-written play is just a sign of the boring artistic times. Overmyer started writing plays around Seattle, then went away to write for TV shows like “St. Elsewhere,” “Law & Order” and “Homicide.” Well, he can go away again; this play stinks like rotting salmon.
The local-heavy supporting cast for this play is highlighted by a terrific Suzanne Brouchard, who has some remarkably funny moments as the Woman in Green, David Pichette, Mary Jane Gibson and Michael Winter.
