Wild, wacky Disinfecting Edwin at Open Stage

Wild, wacky Disinfecting Edwin at Open Stage
F. J. Hartland

            Disinfecting Edwin, the current offering at the Open Stage Theatre, opens with a disturbing image.  Auggie, a middle-aged Texas housewife, is alone in the dark bomb shelter of her  home—and she is tied to a chair with Christmas tree lights.  She is the victim of a burglary gone bad, and the perpetrator is Cecil.

            Both have issues.  Auggie and her husband Edwin have marital problems; she has filled the loneliness with self-help books, television, religion and embezzlement.  Cecil, the intruder, is saddled with the kooky Auggie, who chatters away a mile-a-minute.  The are eventually joined by the link that connects them—Edwin.

            I don’t want to give away too any of the twists and turns of the plot, suffice it to say it is full of surprises.

            Sharon Brady is hysterically funny as Auggie.  She switches the charm off-and-on, peppered with stories from her past.  One second she is vibrant; dead-panned,  the next.  She takes us on an emotional roller coaster ride, making it easy to see how Cecil finds a connection to Auggie.  Brady even manages to send the audience into gales of laughter with such simple lines as, “I’m calling Dominos for a pizza.”

            Chris Cattell as Cecil is a perpetual motion machine.  He covers the set over and over, roots through boxes, threatens Auggie—all with lightening speed.  It is a difficult role, but Cattell manages to make Cecil sympathetic—warts and all.

            In the underwritten role of Edwin, Ken Bolden struggles.  Edwin is caricature, not character.  It’s not the Bolden gives a bad performance—but he’s not given much to work with and his character lacks the winning charm of  the roles of Auggie and Cecil.  Edwin is completely unlikeable—plus he is a whiner…and as Cecil so correctly points out, “Nobody likes a whiner.”  I think Hartman would be wise to consider re-writing—or perhaps eliminating him entirely.

            The first act of Amy Hartman’s play is wild and frenetic, full of zany madness and paced beautifully by director Lisa Ann Goldsmith.   Both Auggie and Cecil play fast and loose with the truth.  Soon, we all entangled in side-splitting web of  lies.  But in Act Two, things grind to a slow pace and become repetitious and overly melodramatic.  Characters stubbornly “settle in” and keep re-hashing what they want.  In excess of two hours, Disinfecting Edwin might be funnier if it were a quickly-paced, ninety minutes with no intermission.

            And then there are some logical concerns.  We are told repeatedly how hot it is in this bomb shelter…so why would these characters consume hot Coke and hot champagne?  Yuck!  Why does Cecil hunt down an extension cord to light up the Christmas tree lights that bind Auggie?  Is Cecil’s “secret” really a secret to anyone—but Auggie—and why is it still a secret even after she forces him to reveal his name?  And why is there a window in this bomb shelter?  Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of a bomb shelter?  (Curiously for quite some time a single stream of water could be seen running past the window during Act One.  I finally drew the conclusion that it was one of the Russian gardeners relieving himself on the lawn).

            The set by David Maslow is correctly claustrophobic and charmingly cluttered.  However, the door that is the only entrance and exit isn’t properly installed and keeps drifting open.  The actors frequently had to fuss with it, too, which became distracting.  Lighting by Jeremy Rolls adds to the overall “bomb shelter” effect.

            Hartman has given us a highly entertainingly first act (complete with cliff hanger ending).  Now if only the entire play was that good…

            Disinfecting Edwin continued through May 9 at Open Stage Theatre in the Strip District.  For tickets, call 412-394-3353.

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