Front, A Reasonable Facsimile Theatre Company, at the Cornservatory, and Chairs, CarniKid Productions, at the Cornservatory. This production of Front, Robert Caisley’s play about the Nazi bombing of London during World War II, raises many questions. But not the kind you want an audience asking. Why is this play so long? Why can’t the actors maintain their British accents? Why are the characters so shallow? And what did Caisley have to do to get Lanford Wilson to select this tiresome work for the Fourth Freedom Forum Playwriting Award in 1996?
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The show immediately following Front is a fully improvised one-act, Chairs, created by a cast of seven under the direction of Bina Martin. And by comparison with the bloated, dead-in-the-water Front, Chairs seemed graceful and energetic, the performers in complete control of their material. For a little more than an hour they spun the tale of a likable fool who keeps letting his best buddy dare him to do more and more dangerous things. And instead of going for easy ComedySportz-type jokes, everyone took their time and created rich, multilayered characters–a choice that paid off in a surprisingly moving ending.
