There is one almost inescapable reality of college life — having a roommate. Some are blessed with harmony in the dorm room while others experience a war zone.
“The Odd Couple,” premiering at 7:30 p.m. at Muncie Civic Theatre, tells the story of two mismatched roommates struggling to cohabitate with each other’s conflicting qualities. In sports caster Oscar Madison’s New York apartment, a shirt hangs over a dying plant, and underwear and beer cans clutter the floor. That is, until newscaster Felix Unger bursts into hysterics over his recent break up and moves in with Madison, bringing his obsessive-compulsive neat-freak qualities with him. Although the main duo is middle-aged divorcees, “The Odd Couple” is a story that students can see themselves in.
“It’s completely relatable,” said Michael O’Hara, dean of fine arts at Ball State. “It’s about two roommates; one’s a slob and the other’s a neat freak and they want to kill each other. It goes to show you that whether you’re 20 or over 30, there are the same problems.”
O’Hara has had a hand in directing Muncie Civic Theatre productions since 1998, usually working with the winter comedy. O’Hara said this show in particular has entwined with his life.
As a student living in New York City in the ‘70s, O’Hara had his fair share of big city life. Working on set, he is brought back to his New York years.
“I have flashbacks all the time, absolutely,” O’Hara said. “Never being able to get a cab and the traffic and a small apartment. There are bits and pieces that come back with blinding clarity.”
“The Odd Couple” has been iconized through several different forms since 1965, when it was originally a Broadway production. It later became a TV show that ran from 1970 to 1975 and then in 1968, Jack Lemon and Walter Matthau played Oscar and Felix on the big screen. There has even been a Broadway female-led adaptation where the quarreling roommates are named Florence Unger and Olive Madison.
O’Hara grew up watching the show and has found nostalgia in now directing two characters that have been present throughout his life.
“When you’re casting the characters, in community theater, you have to find the best Oscar and best Felix that those people can be, and that’s a wonderful puzzle to solve,” O’Hara said.
Todd Terrell, an eighth-grade teacher at Monroe Central in Parker City, Ind., also grew up watching “The Odd Couple” and plays Felix. Terrell said this is definitely a “bucket list show.”
“It’s like playing me,” Terrell said. “I’ve always wanted to play Felix; there’s a lot of Felix in me. Though I’d like to think I’m not as obsessive compulsive, but I’m very orderly. Well, I guess I’m a little OCD, sometimes I have a habit of sorting my M&M’s by color, which is a little weird.”
Terrell describes Felix as a “powder keg,” in which Terrell finds the scene where Felix angrily hurls a ceramic coffee mug across the room pretty enjoyable.
There are many tweaks that have been made before the premier of the show. O’Hara cautioned Terrell not to throw the cup with such force after it completely shattered during a rehearsal.
Other techniques that must be perfected are emotional outbursts, pickle throwing and linguine launching. Michael Kleeberg, who plays Oscar, burst into laughter after he whipped the pickle at the wall in a scene and the spear serendipitously wedged underneath the set door.
There’s a large range of humor within the play, whether it’s vaudeville humor that ends in linguine splattered all over the kitchen or dark humor surrounding suicidal tendencies. Frustration, desperation, love and male-bonding all play into both the humor and drama of the show.
Kleeburg finds the play to be physically exhausting; there is constant action and dialogue between Felix and Oscar. There is always an action-reaction drama storming across the stage causing the actors to always be on their feet. Kleeburg is an English and public speaking instructor at Ivy Tech, but he carves out the time in his schedule to be in the play to support his daughter, Chelsea, who is working as a stage manager for the first time.
The five characters surrounding Oscar and Felix include two British, dirty-minded sisters and a mix of rambunctious poker buddies. The men, except for the baseball T-shirt clad Oscar, all have white button-ups tucked into their pants and a mix of ties and suspenders. While watching them on stage, one is transported into an era O’Hara remembers fondly.
“When I listen to the show, I hear my neighbors back in the city,” O’Hara said.
