THREE’S COMPANY ON SHROOMS

The concept of David Adjmi’s flawed but entertaining new play 3C is an intriguing one: to take Three’s Company, an iconic, milquetoast ABC sitcom (which starred John Ritter and ran from 1977 to 1984), and subvert it, removing the innocuous, bourgeois-TV-show veil, and turning its characters and themes on their heads.

The collection of characters (though with different names) are virtually identical to those in the sitcom, as are both Oana Botez’ exciting, 1970’s-esque costumes and John McDermott’s set. The plot is also similar, at least initially: On the morning after the going-away party for their third roommate, two cash-strapped young women, Linda and Connie – Janet and Chrissy’s doppelgangers, played by a wonderfully high-strung Hannah Cabell and a ditsy yet morbid Anna Chlumsky – discover Brad (Jake Silbermann), a party crasher from the night before, in their apartment and offer him to move in with them, as long as he pretends to be gay in front of Mr. and Mrs. Wicker, their conservative landlords (Kate Buddeke is appropriately schizophrenic as the frustrated Mrs. Wicker).

In Mr. Adjmi’s absurdist reinvention, the characters behave quite differently from the way they do in the cheerful sitcom: When old Mr. Wicker (a delightfully vile Bill Buell) is alone with the ambivalent Linda,   he thrusts his hand down the front of her shorts without warning and masturbates her; when Linda overhears their macho neighbor Terry (Eddie Cahill, who steals every scene that he’s in) teaching Connie how to snort cocaine, Linda mistakenly believes that what she’s in fact hearing is Terry trying to screw Connie up her nose; and when we first see Brad, as he steps out into the living room where Linda and Connie are talking, he is completely naked.

Director Jackson Gay does a very fine job with material that is often slippery and which in the wrong hands would likely fall flat. And there are many good bits of dialogue and some fun set pieces. Unfortunately, the show doesn’t expand much on its initial idea. A potentially compelling storyline between Mr. Wicker and Linda is dropped as soon as it’s introduced. In general there’s very little plot, with the characters not doing much in the way of overcoming obstacles; they mostly just are. Doses of this are enjoyable but ultimately unsatisfying, as questions arise such as “Where is this going?” and “What’s the point?” In the end “the point” is not only predictable and weak, it’s also about 15 years out of date.

photos by Joan Marcus

3C
Rattlestick Playwrights Theater,  224 Waverly Place
produced with  piece by piece productions and Rising Phoenix Repertory
ends on July 14, 2012
for tickets, visit  Rattlestick