A PLAY NOT WORTH EXPLORING
Doggedly determined to fight yesterday’s battles, Nell Benjamin’s farce The Explorers Club manically mocks the heyday of male British explorers. Fuddy-duddy adventure seekers with aboriginal blood on their hands, these intrepid trekkers did a lot more than find the source of the Nile; they blazed a trail for imperialism, colonialism, racism and misogyny. Benjamin sets this strife in a smugly secure enclave, an exclusive men’s club filled with privilege and pomposity.
David Hunt Stafford, Matt Landig, Meghan Lewis, Kevin Dulude, and Daniel Leslie
At Theatre 40, Jeff G. Racks’ splendidly appointed setting at Theatre 40 is a male-only sexist sanctuary circa 1879, its grand bar decorated with taxidermy trophies and its chief activity the gender-specific sacrament of “brandy and cigars.” Here Benjamin invents a series of vaudeville sketches (based on heavy-handed character humor) that she wants to pass off as a plot. Accordingly, the dialogue lurches from one silly absurdity to the next.
We meet woman-hating Professor Sloane (Michael Mullen), a Bible-quoting “archaeo-theologist” who believes the Irish are the lost tribe of Israel and infuriates them by ordering them to leave for Palestine. An aficionado of guinea pigs, whining Professor Walling (Kevin Delude) falls afoul of snake-loving herpetologist Professor Cope (Daniel Leslie) and his cobra “Rosie.” All three silly and sophomoric stereotypes could be straight out of Monty Python or Benny Hill for those who appreciate that type of British humor.
David Hunt Stafford, Michael Mullen, Daniel Leslie, Hovannes John Babakhanyan, Christopher Franciosa, Kevin Dulude
Then there’s the forced love triangle that propels the contrived action: The club’s acting president, dweebish botanist Lucius Fretway (Matt Landig, whose brilliant ability to perform physical comedy adds much-needed laughter), is enamored of the club’s first potential female inductee, Phyllida Spotte-Hume (Meghan Lewis). This newly-arrived intruder has brought a muscular, tattooed jungle specimen she named “Luigi” (Hovhannes John Babakhanyan) from the spoon-worshipping NaKong people who the club intends to civilize in record time. But no luck with that; for when presented to Queen Victoria, the “savage” slaps Her Majesty, which is his customary greeting rather than shaking hands. That error brings Sir Bernard Humphries, Secretary to the Queen (David Hunt Stafford) into the mix, furious at Luigi’s insult to his boss. But what he really wants is to get the explorers to conquer the savage NaKong people for God and Empire.
Kevin Dulude, Megan Lewis, and Matt Landig
Lucius’s alpha-male rival is Sir Harry Percy (the very tall and handsome Christopher Franciosa), a ruthless explorer cursed with an impenetrable upper-class mentality who never brings his men home alive. However, soon a sole survivor named Beebe (John Combs), now a Tibetan terrorist, comes back with a mob of monks bent on revenge, furious that Harry desecrated their sacred mountain by relieving himself upon it. Harry’s brags about his most recent expedition which took him to the “East Pole,” and he will soon conquer the “West Pole” as well. And none of the other explorers question his ridiculous claims.
Matt Landig and Hovhannes John Babakhanyan
Frenetic and forced where Gilbert and Sullivan were clever and whimsical, the frantic action is, like the explorers, all over the map. We get snake attacks, monks who merrily kick the heads off their foes, the death of a guinea pig, the instant invention of a supersonic “airship,” continuous boozing, a native cure for poisonous snake attacks, the fracas in the palace, and several plants that imitate the fast-growing Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors. What’s worse is that the tedious stupid skits are so poorly written it’s tough to watch. Thus, director Melanie MacQueen turns up the mugging meter and the pratfall processor, hoping for hilarity from cast members who overact to the point of being ridiculously inauthentic.
Christopher Franciosa, Hovhannes John Babakhanyan, and John Combs
I did enjoy the comedic timing and characterization by Babakhanyan as the native Luigi, even though I could not understand what he was saying. But his pantomime skills performed to perfection made his performance fun to watch. But what was the reason for one character’s twin sister coming in for a scene and then disappearing? Just the chance for the actor to wear a different wig and beautiful costume? (Michael Mullen‘s period-perfect costumes are just gorgeous!)
Tally low!
photos by Judi Lewin
The Explorers Club
Theatre 40
Mary Levin Cutler Theatre, 241 S. Moreno, on the campus of Beverly Hills High School
accessed via the driveway at the intersection of Durant and Moreno Drives
Thurs–Sat at 7:30; Sun at 2 (dark June 7); Sat at 2 (June 23 only)
ends on June 23, 2024
for tickets ($35), call 310.364.0535 or visit Theatre 40
