Review: Neil Simon's Fools at Apple Hill Playhouse (2001)

Theater - Review - Saturday, August 11, 2001 Cast adeptly presents Neil Simon's 'Fools'

By Alice T. Carter TRIBUNE-REVIEW THEATER CRITIC

School-teacher Leon (Robert Capanna III) learns he has a deadline to meet when he falls in love with Sophia (Katie Kerr) in "Fools." (Apple Hill Playhouse photo)

When the heat and humidity clings to you like a heavy, wet, wool blanket, the concept of a straw hat theater performing a Neil Simon comedy seems particularly appealing.

Others must have been thinking the same thing. The opening-night performance of "Fools" at the Apple Hill Playhouse in Delmont was packing them in for a sold-out performance. A full house had the fans and air conditioner running overtime. But it was cooler inside than out.

"Fools" is a comic fable about the Ukrainian village of Kulyenchikov, which has been living with the curse of stupidity for 200 years. People sweep the dirt into their homes, have difficulty remembering their names and turn their cows upside down to milk them in the hopes that more cream will rise to the udder's top.

When the latest in a long line of schoolteachers arrives to teach the daughter of the town's doctor, he falls in love with her. It's only then he learns he has but 24 hours to increase her intelligence, or he, too, will be rendered dim-witted.

Putting aside his dreams of teaching Greek, Latin and astronomy, Leon buckles down to the hopeless task of getting Sophia to grasp the concept of one plus one.

In lesser hands, a one-joke play repeated endlessly for a little over two hours would be torture. But on a muggy, steamy, sticky summer evening, one joke is about all the brain can process. Besides, when the playwright is Simon, it's sufficient.

The well-rehearsed cast spins out his endlessly creative, highly amusing variations in rapid-fire succession with adroitness and assurance.

Director Brad Dell, dialect coach T.C. Brown and set designer Richard Caugherty create the fairy-tale world of a remote Ukrainian village, circa 1880. Dell keeps the pace swift enough that you just bounce along from joke to joke.

Dr. Zubritsky (Tom Bekavac) and his wife, Lenya (Shirley Ratner) pray for an end to the curse that afflicts their Ukrainian village. (Apple Hill Playhouse photo)

Cast members speak with enough of an accent to remind you you're somewhere other than home while assuring you understand all the lines. Caugherty's set could have benefited from a little more space for Dr. Zubritsky's living room, where most of the action takes place. But the colorful folk-art decorated village looks as though it has leapt from the pages of a well-illustrated children's book.

Robert Capanna III's delightfully earnest Leon is a good match for Katie Kerr's good-natured and simplistic Sophia. He's terrifically triumphant when he finally gets the hang of communicating with these literally backward people.

Equally well matched as a couple are Sophia's parents - Tom Bekavacc's Dr. Zubritsky and Shirley Ratner's Lenya. They're not the sharpest knives in the drawer, but they clearly love their daughter and want her to be happy.

Kate O'Halloran, Paul Johns, Tina Lepidi-Stewart, Scott Meszar and Ken Fischer each carve out an individual niche as the townspeople making do with the hand they've been mid-dealt.

Andrew Nesky plays the pragmatic and wily Count Gregor, the descendent of the family that cursed the village and another suitor for Sophia's hand, as a low-key but likable villain.

The Apple Hill Playhouse production of "Fools" continues through Aug. 25. Performances: 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays. Tickets: $8 to $13. Apple Hill Playhouse, 275 Manor Rd., Delmont. Details:.