'Star City: A Russian Space Farce' orbits absurdity
A wide-eyed young scientist (Matt Spring) demonstrates the launch sequence while Yuri Gagarin (Brant Miller) and his fellow cosmonauts (Keely Wolter, Andy Rocco Kraft) devise a plan "so zany, it has to work!"
Over at the Open Eye Theater, Four Humors are giving their usual treatment to the unlikely topic of the Soviet space program, circa 1963. With a script by resident playwright Nick Ryan, executed via Jason Ballweber's stage direction and Brant Miller's video & sound design, the company presents a five door farce inspired (quite loosely) by the true events surrounding the launch of Soyuz 1.
Because, as Ryan puts it, "The launch of Soyuz 1 is a story of irrational hope against all odds, making it ideal material for a ridiculous farce."
Four Humors is a company that knows how to deliver strong, solid farce and consistent pratfall comedy, although they're perhaps at their best when they mix just the slightest touch of the straight-played and sombre into their work, (the tragic accents applied to recent festival fare like 'The Murderer Did It' and 'Lolita' made the comedy hit that much harder,) but while 'Star City' lacks that sombre touch, its absence doesn't hurt the production. If anything, what the show lacks in occasional seriousness it makes up in even more ridiculousness.
The show takes place on what has to be among the most imaginative, innovative and effective sets a small company has put together. Buster Crabbe would have felt right at home among the CRT viewer screens, analog circuit boards and old-fashioned throw switches. The set is an homage to the primitive, bulky vision we once had of the world of tomorrow, and the 'Star City' laboratory makes U.N.I.T. HQ in the Seventies look positively sleek and modern by comparison. That in mind, there's an abundance of awesome video and sound design hidden behind the lab's homespun facade.
The story itself is, at its heart, a comedy about the new guy in a dysfunctional office, where the boss has to be kept in the dark about just how bad things actually are or everyone will lose their jobs. In this take on the trope, the boss is Leonid Brezhnev, the office workers are loyal Soviet scientists and getting a visit from H.R. means being taken out back and shot. That's the setup, and the execution is about eighty minutes of stealth puns, laser-guided karma and Four Humors just being ridiculous. As they do.
The small group of four actors portrays a total of 17 humans and one dog by virtue of countless rapid-fire costume changes, a handful of well-timed misdirections, some smart visual effects, a little clever blocking, the actors' practically elastic faces, an array of funny voices and one puppet.
Four Humors' trademark delivery of layered running gags is in full force and the script is a well-sequenced series of punchlines as setups for more punchlines, none of which miss a beat.
Except where the missed beat is the joke. There are a few of those.