The Rough & Tumble Theatre has explored moderne malaise through physical theatre for the last several years, from doing shows improvised using from scenarios with gibberish dialogue to scripted pieces from local playwright, William Donnelly. For "Hinterlands:Season One", they're working from a script by artistic director Dan Milstein with set dialogue probably developed during rehearsal. The situation is once again taken from show business; this time the company is a variety troupe touring Pennsylvania probably in the late 1920s. Three veterans of the group, actress Irene Daly, Kristin Baker their Managing Director, and George Saulnier III, the original George K, are joined by juggler Harry LaCoste, actor David Krinitt, and two members of the Snappy Dance Company, Tim Gallagher, and Bonnie Duncan, who's also been Rough & Tumble's costumer for the past few seasons. The result is a somewhat melancholy recreation of hardscrabble entertainment, accompanied as usual by Fred Harrington at the keyboard.
There is a plot. Max Sembersole, the M.C, referred to as the ringmaster, played by Saulnier, opens the show declaiming the first chorus from Henry V. But soon the troupe is down because of the mysterious defection of their female star, Becca. Max rearranges things and they journey on in their rattletrap truck, suggested by a rolling platform stacked with wooden boxes. The staging of this multiscene show is one of its best features. Soon prospects brighten as Max announces that at an upcoming performance they'll be auditioning for a twelve week run in a big city. Since Becca never returns, Irene Daley as Lindy, the stage manager, wants to also do an act, sort of a clown thing--she's having trouble pulling it all together. More about this later. Jenna and Bert, the Ambersons, played by Baker and Krinitt, seem to have an inexhaustible set of routines. Harry LaCoste's Xavier, an all-around juggler is constantly practicing or balancing things. But it's not until Lindy meets up with Bonnie Duncan's Dina one night in a bar that the show finds a new star. Duncan takes over Becca's routines with Gallagher's Aubrey Van Husen. The two perform one of their duets from Snappy involving slow motion lifts and balances which fit the show. Lindy is disappointed but knows she really doesn't have an act of her own. We never see what she trying to do, and since Daley is one of the most accomplished members of the company, seeing her develop something that finally clicks would have been interesting. Maybe that'll happen in Season Two.
There are further complications and at the end, of course, the show must go on. Designer Jeremy Barrett, a Carnegie grad, has transformed the Rehearsal Hall into a neat three quarter space, by facing the seating toward the balcony and installing a large false proscenium and draping the blacks to suggest a tent. The entrances have been turned into arcades lit by Kathy Maloney's signature Xmas lights. Her clip lamp shades have become the house lights this time around. There are a few pieces of simple furniture set as needed and the show flows right along, if somewhat leisurely at times. More change of pace may develop as it runs, but what the show most needs is a funny man--or lady--as counterpoint to the aura of sadness which is effective, but a bit too unrelieved. Someone to tell bad jokes, pull practical jokes, and have little or no plot significance. But Rough & Tumble fans will appreciate this show as those in the past. Just bring a cushion; the old-fashioned triple wooden chairs in the seating can be a bit hard by the second act.