The Hotel Nepenthe

Play by John Kuntz

Actors’ Shakespeare Project
Davis Square
Somerville, MA

Directed by David R. Gammons

With John Kuntz, Marianna Bassham, Georgia Lyman, Daniel Berger-Jones

John Kuntz is a talented and funny actor of long-standing with the Actors’ Shakespeare Project. I have seen him in quite a few of their productions and he is always broadly funny, but also witty and pointed. I saw a short play of his at the Boston Theatre Marathon a few years ago. All of the Theatre Marathon plays are no more than ten minutes long and in that one – a comedy about a high school reunion – Kuntz packed quite a few laughs. The Hotel Nepenthe is the first full-length play of his that I have seen.

Nepenthe is a wildly jumbled mystery-noir-farce, a kind of narrative romp which always seems to hover on the verge of coherence. Putatitvely, it is about a murder, or a set of murders set in and around the hotel, but even this is too straightforward a summary of the thematic disjunctions which surface, cross and disappear. Is it the sister-obsessed bellhop who murders her, and does she in fact get murdered? A taxi driver gets stuffed in the trunk of his taxi, a politician is eliminated by complicity of his wife and a hired prostitute. And a mother tends her baby.

What is going on here? It is hard to say, but the energy is wild, the acting is good and, in the end, it doesn’t much matter. There is an endless series of goofs about 60s television shows – The Odd Couple and Bewitched figure signficantly – and there may be more – who knows?

Kuntz’ talents show most vividly in the scenes that he rides out a bit. A conversation between a taxi hijacker and his presumed ride, or a conversation between a bus driver and his sole passenger who wants to smoke despite the rules. There’s a penetrating and funny quality to these interchanges, something hovering between Mamet and Pinter, but lighter – maybe a bit like Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction.

I imagine if Kuntz worked with a narrative structure that held together a bit more, he would realize some fine and funny dialogue. But the intention of the play, though disjointed, seems to have a kind of performance-piece high-mindedness.

There is a moment in the end when the playwright says as much – asking whether all of these comings and goings that amount to anything. And, if they don’t, then what does? It’s a bit of a heavy-handed coda for such a light and fragmentary piece, but it shows something of Kuntz’ serious intent amidst all the hysteria. I think if he risked a bit more coherence in his overall structures, his Dadaist inclinations could realize themselves in dialogue that could really go somewhere and express something.

This play is more like a wild improvisation that is certainly useful for exhibiting his capactiy for dialogue and certainly the talents of the formidable actors.

I have seen Marianne Basham, who plays half of the women’s roles, in a number of Actors’ Shakespeare Project productions and she is first rate. Here she does a fine series of comic turns as a rental car clerk and as the politician’s wife, among others.

Daniel Berger-Jones who played the crazy bellhop, taxi driver and bus driver was also extremely good. He has a wonderfully resonant voice and is a good and versatile character actor.

Georgia Lyman was also striking and very good in a variety of female roles, magically shifting her appearance from the inside as well as with a demanding execution of costume changes.

The ASP is breaking out of its Elizabethan mold this season with a couple of contemporary plays. It’s nice to see them spreading their wings a bit, but it’s also nice to know that they’ll be back with the Bard soon. As far as Shakespeare goes,they have been one of the best games in town since their beginning six or seven years ago.

– BADMan