Mystery and fun from Crowded Kitchen Players in 'Death Takes a Holiday' - Allentown Morning Call

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Mystery and fun from Crowded Kitchen Players in 'Death Takes a Holiday' - Allentown Morning Call Mar 20th 2012, 07:35 Ara Barlieb, the director of the Crowded Kitchen Players, has an indomitable spirit and fearlessly chooses plays without marquee recognition. The company's current production, the Italian comedic fantasy "Death Takes a Holiday," is a winner. Not only is it great fun, but it is full of fascinating insights into life, death and the transformative effects of love. This plays opens with the entire cast idriving to an Italian villa for the holiday. Suddenly there is a car crash. Barlieb hypes the mystery and suspense with loud noises and sound effects, flashing lights, screams and then silence. What has happened? Has anyone died? Well, of course not because Death is about to take a holiday. We find ourselves in a beautiful garden with white paper lanterns hanging everywhere, a noisy fountain, a few chairs and a series of garden steps. We next meet the shadowy presence of Death, played with verve and ominous suggestiveness by Will Alexander. Death has become dissatisfied with his lonely life and wants to discover why mortals love life so much. Having passed a lovely Italian estate, Villa Felicita, in his nightly travels gathering dead bodies, he sees that everyone is happy and full of life. Death makes the villa's owner, the Duke, an offer he can not refuse. He asks the Duke if he can spend three days in his villa, disguised as a mortal so that he may learn what is so wonderful and compelling about life. Alexander is a strong actor and an imposing stage presence who creates an aura of mystery as he wanders around the stage in his shadowy black robes. But Alexander is also a would be ham and he plays his role to the hilt, winking, hamming it up, giving serious monologues and then mocking them with a comic cynicism. The Crowded Kitchen Players has become a strong ensemble and the cast works together with skillful precision to move the plot along. Alexandra Racines and Dan Daccardi do a great job as the two frenzied Italian servants. Daccardi is particularly funny with his many hysterical outbursts. Todd Carpien plays the role of the Duke, who unwittingly becomes a pawn of Death, with wit and confusion. Michael Thew, dressed in a dashing kilt, imbues Major Whitread with a fearless and serious demeanor. Jack McGavin is very touching as the aging Baron. And Kelly Herbert James is an ethereal and almost fey Grazia, a young girl who falls in love with Death, oblivious to the consequences. Pamela McLean Wallace, Nancy Mikkelsen, Barbara Jackson Root and Sarah Thomas give personality to their roles as members of the Duke's weekend party. And Elizabeth Buss vamps it up as Erica, a sexual predator. Brian Keller plays Grazia's weak and hapless suitor. •"Death Takes a Holiday," 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, through April 1, McCoole's Arts & Events Place, 10 S. Main St., Quakertown. Tickets: $18; $14, seniors; $8, students. 610-395-7176, ckplayers@rcn.com. Myra Yellin Outwater is a freelance writer. Jodi Duckett, editor jodi.duckett@mcall.com 610-820-6704 This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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