Theater review: Bus Barn holiday farce tickles some, leaves others wondering Theater review: Bus Barn holiday farce tickles some, leaves others wondering (December 03, 2003)

By Bryan Wiggin

Almanac Theater Critic

I hate it when I don't get the joke. And that's how I felt during much of Bus Barn Stage Company's "Inspecting Carol," a play for the season created by Daniel Sullivan and the Seattle Repertory Theatre Company.

Mind you, I wasn't the only one not caught up in the froth of the occasion. For while many in the audience laughed loudly and often, some of us were often on the sideline, quietly pondering the source of so much merriment.

The play is about a struggling theater company trying to mount its annual production of "A Christmas Carol." Everyone may be tired of the old chestnut, but it's the one show that reliably fills the box office.

And that's what's needed. For as Kevin, the business manager (Ray Renati), informs Zora, the artistic director (Lisa Wiseman), the company's subscription base has dropped by half; they are in debt; and bankruptcy looms. Also looming is a visit by an inspector from the National Endowment for the Arts to determine if the company merits continuation of its desperately needed $30,000 annual stipend.

When Wayne, an improbable and outrageously untalented actor (Jim Johnson) appears and asks to audition, no one's interested until they decide that he must be the impending inspector. Then nothing is too good for him, including the role of Bob Cratchet, which Wayne demands after divining the misunderstanding that obtains.

Rehearsals commence. Impeding progress are: the inspiration of Larry (Bill Olson), who plays Scrooge, to open the play to broader interpretation by lopping off its conclusion, leaving the audience to wonder if Tiny Tim will live; Walter (Wayne Stribling), the company's first African-American actor, brought in to demonstrate multicultural outreach, but who never learns his lines; and Phil (Manuel Caneri), who wants to lengthen his one-night tryst with Zora into an ongoing affair.

This chaos is bubbling along nicely, with egos lashing out like unsheathed swords, when a conservatively dressed woman enters and announces that she (Laura Toby) has come from the NEA to appraise their theater. After deciding not to murder Wayne for his fraud, the company gathers itself together and puts on the show.

More chaos. This is where things become slapstick and very broadly farced. And this is where many in the audience were in the jolliest of mirth. Sigh. How I envied them the good time they were having. Mind you, I did enjoy a few good laughs, as I'm sure everyone did at some point in the play's duration. But I wasn't on that roller coaster of hysterics enjoyed by many in the house. My loss, no doubt.

All of the actors -- also including James Mantell, Alicia Davidovich, Shannon Stowe, Blair Knickerbocker, and young Evan Revak -- are able to give what their parts demand. In other words, to paraphrase Noel Coward, they remember their lines and they don't bump into the furniture unless they're supposed to. The best performance is from Lisa Wiseman, frantically intense as Zora.

Director Barbara J. Cannon holds the noisy machine together, and is aided by the lighting of Chris Karabats.

Tastes really do vary, and if yours embraces the broadest of farce, "Inspecting Carol" might be just your cup of Christmas cheer.

"Inspecting Carol," by Daniel Sullivan and the Seattle Repertory Theatre Company, is being presented at the Bus Barn Stage Company in Los Altos through December 20. For information, call 941-0551.

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