William Saroyan's thematically sprawling drama receives a ragged production at the well-intentioned hands of director Will Willoughby and his ensemble. But somehow a staging that's a little shabby around the edges admirably suits the material, as the play deals with folks on the fringe. And what the show loses in slick polish, it more than compensates for in intimacy.
The play is set in a derelict theatre, destined to be razed shortly, which has been "taken over" by a non-traditional "family" of eccentric theatre folk, who envision themselves theatre "royalty" even though they might more accurately be called hobo bohos. The King (Erik Robinson) spends his day begging on the streets but comes home at night to The Queen (Sharon Samples), who in her youth played all the great roles in Shakespeare but is now ailing.
The Duke (Carl Kocis), a former prizefighter, now broken down and on hard times, invites a homeless girl (Carly Reeves) to join them. Shortly after that, they are joined by a young couple (Jason Squire, Maria McClendon) and their performing bear (Jamie McMurray, in a rather unconvincing bear suit). The entire band of outcasts clings together in the hope of finding some compassion in a cruel and heartless world. Fat chance.
Saroyan's drama is a play of awkward extremes, lurching as it does from maudlin preciosity to overwrought tragedy. The writing is self-indulgent in a way suggesting that Saroyan was far more in love with his calculatedly lovable characters than any audience member could be. Meanwhile, Willoughby's workmanlike and often haltingly paced production is mostly superficial, the characters giving one another lots of hugs and smiling at each other rather unnervingly for minutes on end. The pacing is frequently indifferent, and long lapses in onstage energy create an awkwardly somnolent mood. Still, the unabashed sincerity of the presentation is often quite charming and engrossing on its own terms.
The cast thumps around the stage in what frequently seems like a parody of "bad" muggy acting. But this clunky style isn't entirely inappropriate for a play that requires larger-than-life acting turns that suggest a certain lack of connection to the real world. Robinson's preening peacock of a King is hilariously over-the-top yet engagingly warm-hearted, while Samples' delicate, sugary turn as the Queen is appealingly motherly and richly likeable.