Farce Lights Up Evergreen's CenterStage with Moon Over Buffalo

Contributed by: Karen Groves/YourHub.com on 3/18/2007Len Matheo is a perfect buffoon in Evergreen Players production of Moon over Buffalo by Ken Ludwig. Matheo easily changes character, as any good actor can, from the slobbering unfaithful husband of Charlotte, to the regal demanding, albeit nosey, Cyrano de Bergerac in his role as the way off-Broadway actor George Hay.In the performance I saw March 17, there is not a moment that languishes.A tightly written play, the actors have perfected the essence of what makes comedy tick: Timing.From a raised eyebrow of Matt Bachus, who plays the slightly naive Paul, to the mountain range of inflections in Patrick Collins's voice, it is a well rehearsed and wonderfully acted play about a theatre family that doesn't care if they dysfunctional, because they're actors . . . of course they're dysfunctional.You're expected to be unfaithful, alcoholic and zany. After all, it's so much fun. If only it didn't have to be in Buffalo, which, as Roz says, "is like Scranton, without the charm."When George and Charlotte's daughter, played with gusto by dark-haired beauty, Haley Johnson, returns home to introduce her fiance (played by Collins) she's eager to prove she has a life outside the theater, a normal life.That is until she's drawn back into family life and everything unravels into a series of farcical incidents and misunderstandings, where characters are seen, then not seen, going and coming through one of the five doors on the set.Grandma Ethel is hard of hearing, the acting couple's lawyer, Richard, is lonely and the TV weatherman Roz brings home has his own set of problems.It's a delightful play directed by Bernie Cardell that made the audience laugh even harder in the second act.It runs weekends through April 1. For information, go to www.evergreenplayers.org