MUFFLE THIS MUFFED;
IT’S COMEDY LOST IN THE NOISE

The films of Christopher Guest are sui generis. From hundreds of hours of improvisation, his talented troupe of actors create memorable characters whose consistent hallmark is their sincerity of purpose. There is nary a wink at the audience nor a trace of self-consciousness. These characters are as blissfully self-unaware as they are hilarious; as endearing as they are obnoxious. It’s a balancing act that is extraordinarily difficult to pull off, even if it doesn’t seem like it.

(front) Reginald Hemphill as Company Leader,
(back) the ensemble as The Meaningful Action Theatre Company

Guest’s influence is all over a piece of mockumentary theatre that opens the 31st season of The Factory Theater: Muffed: A Recounting, or rather The Meaningful Action Theatre Company Presents A Workshop Reading of “Muffed: A Recounting of Farmington, Maine’s 43rd Annual Chester Greenwood Day Devised by the Members of the Meaningful Action Theatre Company and Produced by David New”.

Josh Philoon as Gary Lumbard and Jaycey Carlson as Dan Lumbard

One winter in 1873, in the small town of Farmington, Maine, a teenager named Chester Greenwood invented the ear-muff, a singular event that transformed the fortunes of the community, and led the town to declare that December 21st be forever more known as “Chester Greenwood Day”. This event — it’s real, I checked — serves as the inspiration behind Muffed: a play about the reading of a play where actors conduct person-on-the-street interviews with fictional denizens of the town in the days of preparation leading up to the 43rd Annual Chester Greenwood Day and its parade, and then perform the parts of said denizens while simultaneously playing the actors playing the actors.

(front) Karly Solon as History Professor Sam Bucchanan, (back) Asa Wallace
as Dakota Vasser, Jaycey Carlson as Co. Member 6, and Adelaide Corbo as Co. Member 5 

If that last sentence was exhausting to read — think of how exhausting it must have been to write — fret not; the gimmick is actually a great one on which to hang a comedy. A small town. An obscure festival that means almost nothing to the world outside but holds an oversized significance for the locals. More local eccentrics than you can shake a can of pennies at. Hauntings. Curses. Stolen Giant earmuffs: It’s got the makings of comedy gold.

So why doesn’t it work?

Adelaide Corbo as Deb in Accounting

For starters, the show cannot settle on a tone. It cannot make up its mind whether it wants to be a Guest mockumentary, a series of SNL skits, or a meta comic affair, and in choosing to be all three at once, it torpedoes any comic momentum built in one mode by immediately shifting to the next. This doesn’t do the actors any favors either as most of them seem to be more adept in one format than the other.

Liz Falstreau as Madame Lillian Nordica

Still there are laughs to be had: Jaycey Carslon is a stand-out, barreling from one character to another with an irrepressible energy; company leader, Reginald Hemphill has some great moments, and gets the most out of the meta portions of the play (his throwaway “Live your truth” produced a rare belly laugh); and Asa Wallace throws herself into her characters with such commitment that she wrings out laughs even from lines recycled from a classic Betty White skit on SNL. But the highlight of the production comes late in the show after an especially dire stretch involving some pseudo-Shakespearean declaiming and multiple performers conflating exuberance with deafening volume: Liz Falstreau’s Madame Nordica is an unequivocal delight. Clever, expertly performed, and the funniest stretch of the play by far, her opera-singing ghost rescues the proceedings.

Adelaide Corbo, Alex George, Reginald Hemphill, Jaycey Carlson, and Karly Solon 

Over the last few decades The Factory Theater has built up a reputation as a producer of bold, fearless, and strikingly original theatre. Eschewing convention and comfort in their productions, they have consistently pushed boundaries and challenged expectations and in spite of their high-risk projects, have achieved a ridiculously high percentage of success. Despite its carefully constructed DIY aesthetic, Muffed is an extremely ambitious concept but it just doesn’t come together.

What can you do? Even the best muff it sometimes.

photos by Logan & Candice Conner at Oomphotography

Muffed: A Recounting…
The Factory Theater and Unheard Of Company
The Factory Theater, 1623 W Howard St
Thurs-Sat at 7:30; Sun at 3 (understudy performance Sept. 20)
ends on September 20, 2025
for tickets ($30), visit Factory Theatre
$10 access tickets (limited supply), available for every performance; $15 at HotTix

for more shows, visit Theatre in Chicago