THE PLAY: Two actors play 22 male and female inhabitants in the fictional town of Tuna, Texas.  There’s a holiday theme that adds minor plot elements.

 

THE PRODUCTION: John Hagadorn and Richard Koch are two of our finest comic actors and this show gives them a chance to shine. They go at it with broad style that makes the characters cartoons (with a few flashes of humanity near the warm finish). Hagadorn skewed sweet with most of his individuals, while some of Koch’s seemed more forced. The comedy is corny at times and many of the scenes run a bit too long. While the humor is occasionally politically “challenged,” keep in mind that this is Texas, after all. Act Two’s diner sequence is like a different show: full of zany energy and inventive staging. Once we return to the usual suspects, it settles into a more languid style. Director Tom Width’s set is a lovely desertscape of brush and blue sky, augmented by a few simple props and several Christmas trees. A side benefit of Marua Lynch Cravey’s hilarious dresses and wigs is watching how quickly the actors change in and out of them.

 

THE POINT: For those who enjoy their comedy over the top (and much of the audience did more than me), this duo creates a delightful cavalcade of comic characters.

 

(3 / 5)

 

At Swift Creek Mill Theatre thru 1/7