Fools

Reviews


 
 
The Chicago Reader                                          January 9 1998 Section Two
FOOLS, TinFish Theatre.  The themes of comedy may be as universal as those of tragedy, but they're often so tied to a particular time and place as to be incomprhensible elsewhere.  Yet Neil Simon in the "comic Fable" of a village (obviously the famous Chelm of Jewish folklore) liberated from the curse of cluelessness by a clever schoolmaster forges from the ancient xenophobic tales a parable whose lessons resonate with disturbing familiarity.
      Simon - the master of the lightning-fast quip, who proved in the Good Doctor that even Chekhov can be funny nowadays - understandably devotes most of the script to a parter, relying on the proposition that foolish behavior is plentiful the world over.  And the drollery of the local meshuggenim might easily tempt energetic young actos to self-indulgent scattershot slapstick.  But the TinFish cast has taken care to ground even the most juvenile gags - a villain with a pronounced lisp, for example, and a shepherd whose voice squeaks a la Andy Devine - in clearly defined characters and precision-machined dialogue.  The actors' obvious enthusiasm for thier material and ease with one another - rare in storefront productions, which are often underrehearsed - amplify Simon's humanitarian (but not utopian) plea for enlightenment through education, producing an infectious optimism sorely needed in this fin de siecle New Year.
                                                                                       - Mary Shen Barnidge

 
 
Chicago Tribune: Tempo 2 Section 5       Tuesday, January 6, 1998
Simon is no village idiot for resurrecting old gags
By Richard Christiansen
Tribune Chief Critic

"Fools," Neil Simon's 1981 Broadway entry, is subtitled "a comic fable"; but for muc of its lenth, it might as well be called "an old vaudville routine," something that Lewis and Clark, the octogenarian team of "The Sunshine Boys," would have dreamed up in their heyday.
     It's set circa 1890 in Kulyenchikov, a village in the Ukraine whose inhabitants live under the curse of being stupid; but it real  territory is the stage of a vaudeville house, with ancient gags flying fast and furious.
     Example: The stupid doctor say to his stupid patient,"You'll live to be 80."  The patient answers, "I'm 79 now."  The doctor says, "Well, you've got a wonderful year ahead of you."
     Another example:  The husband tells his wife, "Lower your voice."  She squats and starts talking.
     The story on which these wheezes are strung concerns Leon Tolchinsky, an idealistic schoolmaster who comes to the accuresed village, falls in love with one of the prettiest and stupidest women and vows to marry her and remove the curse.
     But before that, Simon pulls our every "stupid" joke known to mankind and gives them a fresh tweak or two.
     This is no great work of art, and it's not even among Simon's best comedies; but it's funny and sweet, it never outlasts its welcome, and it proves, more often than not, that old jokes are the best jokes.  Simon also piles on new ones, reveling in the sheer number of variations he can spin off his one-joke play.
     At the tiny TinFish Theatre, where "Fools" is getting a rare, rudimentary airing, the play receives a genial and enthusiastic production from director Dejan Avramovich.
     The players at least have an elementary sense of comic timing, which is essential in this kind of nonsense; and a few actors actually are able to turn a flat line into a quick quip.
     Dan Kozlowski, as Tolchinsky, expertly plays straight man to the various fools of the village.  Gary Saipe gives a kind of demonic denseness to the village idiot doctor.  Jennifer Savarirayan is charming as Tolchinsky's devastatingly dumb beloved.
     Best of all is Jim Henry as the comic villain, a man with a lisp so sloppy that he carries a large handkerchief with him so he can wipe his mouth after every line.
 

 

 
 
 
 

January 15, 1998                                                                    Windy City Times
Theater
 
 

Dumb and
Dumber

Fools: A Comic Fable
Playwright: Neil Simon
At: TinFish Theatre, 4223 N. Lincoln
Prices: $10-$15 Run: Through Feb. 7
Phone: (773) 549-1888
 
 

By Byron Upton

     Some say that love can make people stupid.  In Neil Simon's modern fairy tale, Fool, that proves to be the case for more than just the lovers themselves.  It seems that a star-crossed affair in a small Ukrainian village led to a hideous curse in which all the local residents were doomed to a life of stunted mental capacity and a serious lack of common sense.  TinFish Theatre Company has revived this goofy tale with an enthusiastic shamlessness which plays on the strengths of Simon's somewhat limited script.
     According to local legend, every attempt to educate these poor souls has proved too much of a risk for a succession of schoolteachers who soon realize that spending more than 24 hours within the town's bordiers will trap them in a similar state of cluelessness.  However, the young and idealistic Leion Tolchinsky gives it the old college try.
     Assigned to the Zubritsky household, he's determined to break the curse by		 teaching the young and beautiful Sophia, who's taken 19 years to learn to sit in a chair.  Complicating matters, he's fallen in love with her even though the village's nobleman Gregor Yousekevitch is dead set on winning her hand in marriage.  The standoff between the intelligent Leon and the soft-brained Gregor involves a convoluted scheme in which Leon attempts to beat the clock and get the girl, adding some necessary tension to the story.
     Simon's screipt is basically a series of groan-inducing one-liners, hinted at by the set's signs, which display misspellings like "Clozd" and "Slovitch's Meet."  For example, the butcher says to the postman, "Do I have any mail today?" and the reply is "I'm the postman.  I have all the mail."  Smehow the cast succeeds in pulling it off by bringing to life an amusing cast of supporting characters that offset the silly sentimenality of Leon and Sophia's courtship.
     David Booth's deliciously campy Snetsky and Kathryn Grady's daffy Yenchna are the best of the bunch, hamming it up with gusto.  gary Saipe also earns some chuckles with his bug-eyed mad doctor persona as sophia's loving father.  Jim Henry has the dubious honor of appearing in one of the most embarrassing costumes ever conceived (think of a Roman tunic designed by Liberace) as the hoplessly vain gregor.
     Acting as counterweight to these larger-than-life clowns is dan Kozlowski, in an endearing performance as Leon.  If he comes across as a bit bland, it's mainly due to Simon's cheesy smirking asides and the dieous aw-shucks ending, which seems to imply that it's easier to fall in love with a woman if she's dumb and undemanding.  As Leon's object of devotion, jennifer savarirayan is sweetly charming.

 
 
 
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