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By Kerry Clawson
Beacon Journal staff writer
POSTED: 09:32 p.m. EST, Nov 09, 2009
In the comedy For Better, Cleveland Heights playwright Eric Coble has a lot to say about today's digital society, which relies so heavily on communications technology, it can actually serve as a substitute for real, live relationships.
The regional premiere of the play, showing at Actors' Summit in Hudson, has a witty script full of jokes, jabs and insightful commentary about today's wireless world. Coble's characters, who have frantic careers in a highly mobile society, engage in a string of absurdly fractured communications that are interrupted by call waiting, three-way calling and dropped cell-phone calls.
Have you ever heard of breaking up with someone via Post-It note? Think the polar opposite when it comes to the impersonal in this play, where a fiance sends his lady love an engagement ring via UPS.
Whatever happened to good old face time when it comes to developing a romance?
Coble creates overlapping dialogue that's ripe with humor as parallel three-way phone conversations happen multiple times on stage. Director Neil Thackaberry has carefully choreographed these conversations, in which timing is everything.
In this story, the peppy Karen (Connie Thackaberry) plans to marry an out-of-town man she's seen only three times: She keeps up with him by phone, e-mail and text messaging. Sally Groth plays the distressed, killjoy sister, Francine; and Keith Stevens is Michael, Francine's beleaguered husband.
It's all ridiculously fun, especially in an over-the-top scene where Michael and the loopy Lizzie (Jen Walker) engage in a titillating instant messaging scene full of sexual innuendo.
Through all the young people's communications, Wally — Karen and Francine's father — refuses to use e-mail or TiVo. Wally (played with lovable flair by Larry Seman) actually uses a (gasp!) land line on a cord.
For Better is billed as a 21st-century farce, complete with technology-driven mistaken identities and even women who virtually shop for a wedding gown together.
Coble has a knack for capturing our cultural zeitgeist, as seen in his off-Broadway play Bright Ideas, which explores fanatical parents using their preschooler as a steppingstone toward success. In the dark humor of The Dead Guy, which played two years ago at the Bang and the Clatter, a reality show studio audience gets to choose the manner of a down-and-out man's death.
Coble was in attendance at opening night of For Better, a 2008 play that's milder and more fun-loving than the black humor in either of those early plays. But Coble still poses some interesting questions.
In this age of Internet dating and social networking, how well can we get to know anyone? Francine aptly calls Karen's fiance an ''Internet ghost.''
The comedy also skewers cavalier attitudes toward marriage with this gem from Lizzie: ''Well it's just a marriage. It's not like buying a car.''
Director Thackaberry keeps the pace zipping along as characters engage in parallel rants, often scooting about the stage on desks with wheels.
Tony Zanoni brings a sad-sack brand of humor to the hapless character Stuart, who calls from all kinds of outrageous-sounding countries and gives new meaning to the Verizon slogan, ''Can you hear me now?'' His drunken cell-phone scene with buddy Michael, when they make an analogy between themselves and tamed monkeys, is delicious.
This modern comedy, a satisfying blend of the silly and satirical, reaches outrageous heights with a final wedding scene unlike any you've seen before.
Details
Comedy: For Better.
When: Through Nov. 22; 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays.
Where: Actors' Summit, 86 Owen Brown St., Hudson.
Onstage: Sally Groth, Larry Seman, Keith Stevens, Constance Thackaberry, Jen Walker, Tony Zanoni.
Offstage: Eric Coble, playwright; Neil Thackaberry, director/lighting; MaryJo Alexander, costumes/props; Daniel Taylor, sound recordist; Peter Voinovich, musical selections.
Tickets: $26-$29; senior citizens, $23 Thursdays and Sundays; students, $7.
Information: 330-342-0800.
Arts writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.
In the comedy For Better, Cleveland Heights playwright Eric Coble has a lot to say about today's digital society, which relies so heavily on communications technology, it can actually serve as a substitute for real, live relationships.
The regional premiere of the play, showing at Actors' Summit in Hudson, has a witty script full of jokes, jabs and insightful commentary about today's wireless world. Coble's characters, who have frantic careers in a highly mobile society, engage in a string of absurdly fractured communications that are interrupted by call waiting, three-way calling and dropped cell-phone calls.
Have you ever heard of breaking up with someone via Post-It note? Think the polar opposite when it comes to the impersonal in this play, where a fiance sends his lady love an engagement ring via UPS.
Whatever happened to good old face time when it comes to developing a romance?
Coble creates overlapping dialogue that's ripe with humor as parallel three-way phone conversations happen multiple times on stage. Director Neil Thackaberry has carefully choreographed these conversations, in which timing is everything.
In this story, the peppy Karen (Connie Thackaberry) plans to marry an out-of-town man she's seen only three times: She keeps up with him by phone, e-mail and text messaging. Sally Groth plays the distressed, killjoy sister, Francine; and Keith Stevens is Michael, Francine's beleaguered husband.
It's all ridiculously fun, especially in an over-the-top scene where Michael and the loopy Lizzie (Jen Walker) engage in a titillating instant messaging scene full of sexual innuendo.
Through all the young people's communications, Wally — Karen and Francine's father — refuses to use e-mail or TiVo. Wally (played with lovable flair by Larry Seman) actually uses a (gasp!) land line on a cord.
For Better is billed as a 21st-century farce, complete with technology-driven mistaken identities and even women who virtually shop for a wedding gown together.
Coble has a knack for capturing our cultural zeitgeist, as seen in his off-Broadway play Bright Ideas, which explores fanatical parents using their preschooler as a steppingstone toward success. In the dark humor of The Dead Guy, which played two years ago at the Bang and the Clatter, a reality show studio audience gets to choose the manner of a down-and-out man's death.
Coble was in attendance at opening night of For Better, a 2008 play that's milder and more fun-loving than the black humor in either of those early plays. But Coble still poses some interesting questions.
In this age of Internet dating and social networking, how well can we get to know anyone? Francine aptly calls Karen's fiance an ''Internet ghost.''
The comedy also skewers cavalier attitudes toward marriage with this gem from Lizzie: ''Well it's just a marriage. It's not like buying a car.''
Director Thackaberry keeps the pace zipping along as characters engage in parallel rants, often scooting about the stage on desks with wheels.
Tony Zanoni brings a sad-sack brand of humor to the hapless character Stuart, who calls from all kinds of outrageous-sounding countries and gives new meaning to the Verizon slogan, ''Can you hear me now?'' His drunken cell-phone scene with buddy Michael, when they make an analogy between themselves and tamed monkeys, is delicious.
This modern comedy, a satisfying blend of the silly and satirical, reaches outrageous heights with a final wedding scene unlike any you've seen before.
Details
Comedy: For Better.
When: Through Nov. 22; 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays.
Where: Actors' Summit, 86 Owen Brown St., Hudson.
Onstage: Sally Groth, Larry Seman, Keith Stevens, Constance Thackaberry, Jen Walker, Tony Zanoni.
Offstage: Eric Coble, playwright; Neil Thackaberry, director/lighting; MaryJo Alexander, costumes/props; Daniel Taylor, sound recordist; Peter Voinovich, musical selections.
Tickets: $26-$29; senior citizens, $23 Thursdays and Sundays; students, $7.
Information: 330-342-0800.
Arts writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.
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