By Kyle Osborne
How does one make serious commentary on the subject of income inequality and the soulless indifference of corporate chain stores?
If you’re Canadian playwright and director Morris Panych, you start with a 16 ounce Rib-eye steak being hidden up an old lady’s dress. Next, have said old lady drop pearls of wisdom on the backs of falling F-bombs, put together a tight 90 minute comedy that has more jokes than a stand-up comic, and more plot twists than a (good) M. Night Shyamalan movie. And that’s just the beginning.
To paraphrase some old showbiz wisdom: If you can make ‘em laugh until water comes out of their noses, then you can hit ‘em with unforeseen poignancy that’ll make the water come out of their eyes.
Okay, I just made that up.
Jayne Houdyshell as Alma in The Shoplifters at Arena Stage. Photo by Teresa Wood.
Either way, The Shoplifters, having its World Premiere at Arena Stage through October 19th is not political—that’s the last thing Panych would want said. But it does have a sneaky way of using completely authentic characters to make a larger point, which you can take, or simply enjoy the giggles.
The play is set in a mega-grocery store break-room. Filled from floor to ceiling with boxes of (as yet) un-shelved merchandise, the dingy table and chairs help transform it into an “interrogation room.” Alma (Broadway veteran and Tony nominee Jayne Houdyshell) is a long-time shoplifter who has just been caught with a steak up her dress by a hyperactive, overzealous security guard on his first day on the job. She’s as calm as an oft-arrested prostitute, while the rookie, Dom (scene stealer Adi Stein) attempts to process his first “arrest.” It’s not going to be an easy task.
In the adjoining storeroom, Alma’s friend, Phyllis (Jenna Sokolowski) is also facing charges for the misappropriation of beef. Her interrogator, Otto (Delaney Williams) is just trying to get through his last day on the job. His thirty years of watching thieves have given him a rather sophisticated view of human behavior, but the corporate owners don’t care about real people—only the profit margin, and that set of “differences” has led either to Otto’s resignation or his dismissal, but which one of these?
And so our cast of four gives us two weary experts in their respective fields, and two upstarts whose philosophies don’t jibe with their reluctant mentors. The first act uses those personality conflicts for maximum laughs; So many laugh lines, in fact, that it seems as if the audience is going to be treated to too much of a good thing.
Ah, but the rhythm changes and by the end of the first act, we see that the waters run much deeper, especially for Alma and Otto, than the initial rapid-fire jokes prepared us for. It’s a nice “I didn’t see that coming” kind of twist that has one wishing the intermission would soon end so that we may return all the more quickly to these wonderfully drawn folks.
There’s hardly anything that can be said about the second act, and the play’s satisfying conclusion, without spoiling anything. And I will not.
Adi Stein as Dom and Jenna Sokolowski as Phyllis in The Shoplifters at Arena Stage. Photo by Teresa Wood.
Ms. Houdyshell’s Alma is a hustler, but she does have a conscience and she never (truly) asks for pity. Panych couldn’t have asked for a better match of actress to character. And when Delaney Williams reaches for his chest in that Fred Sanford/Archie Bunker kind of “this is the big one” way—he not only makes you laugh out loud, he also makes you worry that he’s not acting. I believe it was a snooty Donald Sutherland (name drop) who once told me in a condescending tone, dripping with contempt, “Well, that is the whole point of acting.” Got it.
Williams’s character is, I believe, the true heart of the piece. His gruff exterior only faintly hides a sensitive, albeit burned out, man beneath the security guard uniform. Williams uses his larger physical presence just as ably as he does an old fashioned, silent double-take. If he were an Opera singer, you might say that his role requires a four-octave range, and he doesn’t miss a note.
Delaney Williams as Otto in The Shoplifters. Photo by Teresa Wood
The Shoplifters doesn’t ask you to take sides, rather it shows you all sides of each character, and they’re a blast with whom you should spend an evening. Soon.
For Tickets and More Information, please visit: http://www.arenastage.org