Dirty Bird
Curio theater nurtures its growin audience with The Green Bird.
Nothing wrong with securing a little repeat business. With their impressive interpretation of Carol Gozzi's The Green Bird — a sequel of sorts to last spring's King Stag — West Philly's Curio Theatre Company is looking to build traditions to nurture its growing audience.
Director Jared Reed's take on 18th-century Commedia Dell'Arte style uses Gozzi's magical story of transformation and redemption as groundwork for an extended improvisation blending contemporary puns, audience participation and low-tech fantasy.
Drew Petersen and Aetna Gallagher superbly reprise their roles as clownish couple Truffaldino and Smeraldina, complete with red noses, motley coats and comic padding. Jennifer Summerfield and C.J. Keller play their adopted children, Barbarina and Renzo, who follow a mysterious Green Bird to the court of King Tartaglia (Paul Kuhn). He pines for long-lost wife Ninetta (Chelsea Bulack) and children, who were cursed by his horny hag of a mother, Tartagliona (Ken Opdenaker, in a spectacularly tacky dress by Gallagher, who designed the wonderful costumes and props).
While their journeys are spiritual — Barba-rina struggles with selfish impulses, while Renzo falls in love with a statue, Pompea (Bulack), and offers to sacrifice all to give her life — ours is punctuated by humor. We're given cowbells and encouraged to ring loudly whenever performers "cross the line" (which they do often, primarily with sexual innuendos), and also asked to fill in blanks on slips of paper ("a nasty fancy word," "a body part or function,") which provide fresh fodder.
This high-energy cast uses these well, but struggles (as did The King Stag's performers) with improv dialogue, which often results in wordy verbal flailing. A standard — repeating a scene in different ways according to audience suggestion (in the case of last Saturday's performance, as a dubbed kung fu movie and lunar cosmonauts) — falls flat for lack of spontaneous invention. Some take inspired chances, but one actor resorted to calling all others "assholes," which soon grows tiresome.
Trial-and-error will no doubt sharpen their verbal acumen through the run, particularly with inspiration from involved audiences, but it's a risky venture. More certain is Kuhn's colorful set, which guarantees clever visual puns. (Renzo calls on the "King of All Statues" for aid, and he's sent comic versions of The Thinker, the LOVE sculpture and Lady Liberty.)
Petersen outdoes his improvised bawdy tunes with romantic melodies that send the play's conclusion soaring. The Green Bird ultimately succeeds not through its hit-or-miss improv, but its fidelity to Gozzi's tales of love's endurance.
The Green Bird
Through May 26Curio Theatre Company48th Street and Baltimore Avenue215-525-1350, www.curiotheatre.org
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