Old situations, new complications, nothing portentous or polite. Tragedy tomorrow, a comedy tonight. Yes, I am talking about Saturday night's performance of "Erratica."
It had a wacky librarian, a horny ghost, a Shakespeare-obssesed writer, a bitchy publicist and a quirky translating student. With only five cast members in the show, no actor could hide behind an elaborate set or fanciful group numbers. And none of them did.
Kate Ponzio, the protagonist, had her character established from the time she walked on stage until the time she left. Some of her funniest bits were the under- the-breath ad-libs she spurted out during the show. She also had her broader comical bits truly supported by real emotion and was always convincing.
She was soon joined by Tony Howell, who played Christopher Marlowe's ghost. Howell's relationship to Ponzio was like Beetle Juice to Lydia. He appeared just to tease her while sharing his companionship with her. Any time he entered he picked up a new pace for the show. His classical dialect, flowery voice and grand persona made him an intriguing feature of the show.
Another featured performer in the show was Maeghan Looney, who was double cast as Elizabethan maiden Anna Quinberry and quirky college undergraduate Elspeth Lisseth. It was breathtaking to see how she transformed from role to role. As Lisseth, she was sometimes too over-the-top, but as Quinberry her classical training shined through.
Reina Hardy wrote Quinberry's character to explain the taunting relationship between her and Marlowe, which mirrored his relationship with Ponzio's character Samantha Stafford. So to have Looney then play Quinberry and Lisseth, who is Stafford's foil character, really added a nice full circle effect.
Ryan Krause and Alli Miller did well with matching wits with Stafford. Miller used a sing-song voice to portray sarcasm. She reminded me of Kim Cattrall's character on Sex and the City because she was highly fashionable sporting those loud costumes and simultaneously sensual.
Speaking of fashion, the costumes looked like they belonged in the fall line of a New York fashion show. Excellent job to the costume designers. My favorite was the Elizabethan garments. Howell looked like Robin from the Batman comics and Looney looked like a medieval enchantress.
The set was nicely constructed. I anticipated being distracted by having to shift back and forth to see all of the action in the alley set up, but I did not notice it.
The only thing that was distracting was the music during the scene changes. The music did not read as allusions to the characters like it was intended.
Overall, "Erratica" was nicely performed. A highlight was the rock number performed by Howell and the stage crew, which really broke up the monotony of the show.
Kwame Stiffler Micah is a graduate journalism major and writes 'Get Stiff' for the Daily News. His views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper.
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