All In The Timing

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

Modern Muse Theatre Company leaps out of the starting gate with a thrilling production of David Ives’ All In The Timing at The Bug Theatre. From the very start this show needs to be on the must see list.

Susan Scott (Betty) and Jeremy Make (Bill) in “Sure Thing” from Modern Muse Theatre Company’s All In The Timing.

With tongue-in-cheek wit, Ives’ six vignettes take the art of communication for a dare devil roller coaster ride. Directed by Stephen J. Lavezza and Gabriella Cavallero, surrounded by an exquisite cast of five polished talented actors All In The Timing comes vibrantly alive while digging through the wondrous maze of communication.

With words frequently giving off different scents and meaning, it is sometimes amazing and amusing human beings can communicate at all. I have been in conversations where two or more people basically using the same words talk about something entirely different, missing each other’s point entirely. Heated disagreements often begin when someone says one thing, while hearing something entirely different.

All In The Timing is a perfect example of a production that, if handled by a less then astute perceptive director and less then knowledgeable sensitive well-trained actors, could fall on its face within the first five minutes.

Definitely not a concern or issue for Modern Muse’s very alive, past paced humorous production.

Susan Scott as Betty and Jeremy Make as Bill demonstrate how easy it is to get words mixed up breeding misunderstanding from an every day situation we have all been in with Sure Thing.

At a coffee shop table, Bill approaches Betty, asking if “this chair is taken.” As long as wrong responses are given, a bell rings, and the scenario starts over going from “Yes it is to no it isn’t.” A simple sketch complicated by repetition could send an inexperienced actor into an Alice In Wonderland rabbit hole. Scott and Make bring recognition to the forefront with split second timing providing “funnied” giggles.

The Universal Language takes the breath away through Josh Hartwell and Jennifer Anne Forsyth’s performance in double speak.

Don (Hartwell) a slick con man enters into a get rich quick scheme by devising a new language advertised as the new universal language comprised of nonsensical words and sounds, guaranteed to take off like wild fire.

Dawn, (Forsythe), a shy woman fraught with stuttering with very little money, sees the universal language as a potential to help her stop stuttering. Eager for the money, Don accepts her proposal to paying in installments, proceeding to teach her the gibberish of “doo-wah-ditty.” Hartwell’s inflective presentation blows the mind maintaining his character, making sense out of nonsense. Learning the language relatively quickly, Forsythe’s Dawn gains confidence in her maneuvering through the strange sounds. The characters so well developed, the inflection clearly defined, their conversation can be easily understood which is stunning all by itself.

A glitch in the con man’s scheme, Don is forced to admit the Universal Language concept is nothing but a sham when he falls in love with this once shy beauty.

Shyness down the tubes, Dawn jumps on the idea, developing the con game further with the two of them. To their delight a Young Woman (Scott) wanders in eager to learn the Universal Language which Don and Dawn are all too willing to pursue.

Universal Language becomes a magical lesson in basic communication driven by the expertise of Hartwell and Forsythe.

In The Philadelphia, Missy Moore plays a waitress to Al (Make) and Mark (Hartwell) who finds themselves in a warped Twilight Zoned metaphysical universe where everything appears to be backwards and upside down. Moore, Make, and Hartwell engage in a lively verbal tennis match connecting exactly at the point where the characters live in disconnection.

Life is good for Al who woke up in Los Angeles unbothered his wife left him and he lost his job. Mark lives in perpetual Philadelphia despair unable to get what he wants. The impatient busy Waitress demonstrates Mark’s reality. Whatever he orders on the menu isn’t available. Good hearted loose as a goose Al teaches Mark the way to get what he wants is to ask for the opposite, which won’t be available, but what he does want will be.

Colorful and fast-paced the three play off each other maintaining distinct characterizations without missing a beat.

Intermission comes alive with conversations regarding the stirring sensation All In The Timing creates, becoming a part of the action when three monkeys invade the lobby and outside.

The amazing and amusing physicality of the monkeys were down pat played by Moore, Forsythe, and Scott. Having been owned by a squirrel monkey for several years, their detailed monkey antics and chatter struck a rich chord.

Words, Words, Words open Act II, playing out the theory that if three monkeys spend enough time at a typewriter, one of them will eventually produce Hamlet.

With three typewriters on stage and a large tire swing, Milton (Moore) finds the swing much more to her liking, insisting she doesn’t know what a Hamlet is, and doesn’t care much in finding out. Kafka (Forsythe) in a red-checkered dress types with her feet. Swifty (Scott) instigates with her monkey business bizarre commentary on the forced assignment. Through the monkey mind comes humorous and yet profound thoughts on human intelligence. The three are stunningly wonderful.

In the Variations on the Death of Trotsky, Hartwell, as the Russian revolutionary Trotsky walks, around with a climber’s axe sticking out of his skull while his wife Mrs. Trotsky (Scott) reads from a 1900 encyclopedia that today he will die killed by his Mexican Gardner Ramon (Make). Trotsky obsessed over an ice pick has no memory of the day before, appearing unconcerned over the ax hanging from his skull. Each time Trotsky dies, a bell sounds and the scenario plays a different tune in a different direction.

The final selection takes Make as Jack and Moore as Jill into a party situation in English Made Simple as they struggle to communicate without falling prey to simplistic and trite banged to death over used words. Forsythe on a loudspeaker frequently interrupts them with corrections. A relatively common experience is turned into a hysterical scenario sticking its tongue out at political correctness and superficial party talk that goes “no where” doing “no thing.”

Lavezza designed the creative set spotlighting what vegetable-soup-communication can become with three large panels across the stage. The middle panel shouts from the stage in large letters In The Beginning Was The Word. Creative and attractive, the set lends itself quite well to the six varied scenarios.

Cavallero provided appropriate costuming for all six pieces describing each character’s personalities, including the monkeys.

Rob Byers aptly designed the lighting giving significant importance to each segment, tying the parts into a whole the way lighting can do.

Anyone intrigued with communication, the art of, the fallacy of, the misuse of, the abuse of, and the magic of should definitely have this on the don’t miss list with its careful direction, energetic talented and fun-loving cast, and its amusing, honest funny, provocative adventurous journey into communication’s All In The Timing.