We all may think that we know what to expect when sin, and sex, and the C.I.A. are the subject. The treatment we expect is serious, sensual and mysterious. C.I.A. agents are rendered as capable and ruthless, highly trained in arcane technologies, and good in bed. Foreign agents are rendered as mysterious and speak heavily accented English. Government negotiators are serious and deep. Preachers are either spiritual and kindly, or deeply corrupt.
But this is no ordinary rendition, at the Finley Grange. This is the Lakeport Community Players presenting a Michael and Susan Parker play. You can throw that spy thriller model out the window (being careful about the booby traps out there). The mood in the secret safehouse in Virginia, where it is set, is hilarious and slapstick. None of the characters can keep their self-images intact for the few hours the play covers, no one is quite who they seem to be, and the plot has more turns than Soda Bay Road.
I can”t say much about the plot, since it is central to the enjoyment of the humor, and I”m so pleased with it that I don”t want to give a jot away. Enough to say that, in the safe house in rainy Virginia, a U.S. State Department official is scheduled to negotiate with a representative of a third-world island nation about a major oil discovery, unknown to the world and very hush-hush. That”s all I”m going to say, for your sake so that you get all the laughs coming to you, and for mine, so that I can continue typing without breaking up.
I can tell you about the cast, direction, and stagecraft. I can”t say all I”d like to, though, without getting my brevity amputated. I must note that agent Luke James (Daniel Suenram) falls down on the job, frequently, loudly and skillfully. Margaret Johnson (Julie Hoskins), the U.S. negotiator, puts the moves on the businesslike retired Marine Daniel Warren (Doug Reams) with so much verve and nerve that we are pulling for her, though we are glad that it turns out the way it does. The Reverend Abernathy (Rich Adams) starts out self-righteous and condemnatory, but that gets chipped away. It is his secretary, Millicent (Crystal Hutchins), who undergoes the greatest changes, tutored by the lissome Heather Ann Faraday (Laura Fichtel.) Yes, this play has character development, like every good play must, but it doesn”t get in the way of a good time.
Both Michelle Chapman, director, and Alice Stone, assistant director, have worked with Parker plays before, “Whose Wives Are They Anyway” and “The Amorous Ambassador,” both of which the LCP has presented in the past. In fact, Michael Parker offered the LCP this play immediately after its premier back east, due to the success of the earlier productions. Chapman and Stone are both experienced actresses, and know what it takes to make the audience happy.
Now, for a serious note, I”d like to say something about stages. The Finley Grange stage was barely big enough for Joan Holman and Bert Hutt to do “Gin Game,” two elderly characters playing cards on a screened porch. It was not big enough to produce “Sin, Sex, And The C.I.A.,” which is full of physical action, five doors, a window, furniture and a corridor. It was the clever improvisations by Wink Winkler that made it all possible, extending the stage far into the room. It was well done, but it shouldn”t have been necessary to go to such lengths. If the actors in Lake County had a proper theater, with a proper stage, that doesn”t cost an arm and a leg to rent, those efforts could have been put into something more fun to do and see. You know what to do. After going to see “Sin, Sex and The C.I.A.,” give the Soper-Reese Community Theater Construction Committee some support. They are about half-way to raising the serious funds it”s going to take. Lake County has able theater companies to make it all worthwhile. Let”s go for it.
There will be three more performances, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 17 and Saturday, Nov. 18; and 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 19. If you know what”s good for you, you”ll go. If you don”t, the baddies will have won.
