Bowie theater opens its season with Neil Simon play

Thursday, Oct. 5, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Photo courtesy of the Bowie Community Theater The cast of Bowie Community Theater’s production of Neil Simon’s comedy ‘Rumors’ rehearses a scene. The play opens Friday at the Bowie Playhouse. The cast includes (from left), Lucas English, Adrienne Brown, Rick Hall, Sharon Zelefsky, Jodie Calvert, Michael Rogers, James McDaniel, Ray Fulton, Joanne Bauer and Michele Hitchcock.

Likewise, there are probably very few Americans who are not familiar with his work, starting with television comedy for Sid Caesar, Broadway hits like ‘‘Barefoot in the Park,” and many of his works adapted to the screen, in movies like the ‘‘Odd Couple” and ‘‘Goodbye Girl.”

In fact, his work is being recognized by the Kennedy Center this year, where he is scheduled to receive the Mark Twain Prize this month.

‘‘He’s just a legend,” said Janice Coffey, Bowie Community Theatre president. Like Mark Twain, Simon uses comedy to poke at our shared human frailties, making us laugh, sometimes with embarrassed self-recognition.

To honor this legend, the theater plans to feature two Neil Simon plays this season. One of his lesser known works, ‘‘Proposals,” is scheduled for production this spring. But first up, ‘‘Rumors,” opens Friday and is scheduled to play through Oct. 21.

‘‘Rumors” is the story of an upper class anniversary party that begins with the host shot through the earlobe and his wife nowhere to be found. It gallops off from there, and as partygoers arrive each has their own take on what might have happened, what is happening and where it all may end up.

Director Estelle Miller said she has always loved Simon’s work.

‘‘He’s a New Yorker, like me,” she said. But what she particularly appreciates is the way Simon can make audiences roar with laughter, but send them home with something to think about.

‘‘I don’t do a lot of comedies,” she said, ‘‘but Simon says something in his work.”

As friends of the anniversary couple arrive, they display their own strengths and weaknesses, and their loyalties to each other and to their friends. Being a farce, the play moves with incredible energy as characters enter and exit, clash and conspire.

‘‘I think the audience will enjoy the way the characters portray their anxieties,” Miller said.

Their bizarre stories and interpretations of events are colorful and revealing.

Farce takes a lot of energy, and Miller says the cast is tired after their rehearsals.

‘‘The roles require a lot of physical work to express the stresses on each character. The cast is not only working on impeccable comic timing, they’re also are working on their New York accents. They work as a team and spent time in early rehearsals really developing their characters.

‘‘The cast is enthusiastic about exploring Simon’s intent for each character and they work very hard to become their character,” she said.

Miller suspects audiences will be swept up immediately in the play’s high energy, fast-paced dialog and physical, almost slapstick, humor but she said the high point of the play is the climactic ending of the story, the show’s most extravagant version yet of the cover-up.

She suggests bringing along some tissues.

‘‘You’ll be laughing and crying.”