Patsy Cline's Crazy plays and a spotlight picks out a wireless sitting on a stool behind a dais, two tables with two chairs by each. Otherwise the stage is empty and set for minimalist, character-driven work. Greater Tuna follows the lives of 21 characters on a day in the third smallest town in Texas. Augmenting a strong mystery-narrative thread about the death of the town's judge the script is clever, witty and asks important questions about community and family.

This production is none of those things. Susie McCarthy and Michael Anthony Nozzi are ambitious in what they have attempted, but ambition alone does not justify a £9 price tag for an hour-and-a-half of uninspiring theatre. The space, and especially the stage, is too big for the production, and the company fails to respond to this by constructing a set or staging the action in a way that either mitigates or exploits this. This sense of a half-done production is consolidated by amateur shortcuts, bad miming - an imaginary coffin varying in height and location - and catastrophic lack of pace.

The elements of satire on small town life go unrecognised and undeveloped; the political side of the piece is sadly neglected, narrative is sluggish and the character work very inconsistent. The cast's strongest moments are as the radio presenters Arles Struvie and Thurston Wheelis where they develop a strong and amusing comic rapport.

Susie McCarthy's Petey Fisk and Didi Snaveley are bland although thought has clearly been put into the physicality of each different character. Her Charlene Buemiller is stronger and Vera Carp amusing, but still lack depth. Michael Anthony Nozzi's Pearl Burras uses a walking-stick unconvincingly and inconsistently and the monologue is bland, containing little feeling and no humour. His Mrs Buemiller, whilst occasionally amusing, is more pantomime than character performance. Susie McCarthy's final monologue as Stanley Buemiller, the dramatic cusp of the piece narratively-speaking, does not bear this out dramatically.

The final scene, Evening Prayers contains an element of poignancy, but by this time the production is unredeemable, flawed in its lack of pace, imagination and quality character work. The programme does not credit a director. Although both actors have impressive CVs, they need to find one quickly to avoid turning in another performance like this one.

Cast Credits: (alpha order): Susie McCarthy - Arles Struvie / Didi Snavely / Harold Dean Lattimer / Petey Fisk / Jody Bumiller / Stanley Bumiller / Charlene Bumiller / Chad Hartford / Phinas Blye / Vera Carp. Michael-Anthony Nozzi - Thurston Wheelis / Elmer Watkins / Bertha Bumiller / Leonard Childers / Coach Raymond Chassie / Pearl Burras / R R Snavely / Rev Spikes / Sheriff Givens / Hank Bumiller / Yippy.

Company Credits: Writer - uncredited. Director - uncredited. Technical Operator - uncredited. Producer - uncredited. Company - BacktoE Productions.

END

(c) Ruth Stanley 2008

reviewed August 08 / Bedlam Theatre, Edinburgh

Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012

www.fringereport.com