Larsen's "Actors" a comedy classic

Theater has become a spot for serious shows, for teaching, learning lessons, and instructing the world on what to think, do, and feel. Plays are lectures. We like them because, well, not to like them would be to miss the point. Subject matter is mistaken for story. Pretention passes for performance. But you know, now and then, though, it's good to see a play that, while it does deal with psychological issues, is just incredibly entertaining. Ronnie Larsen's "The Actors" is like a great new Neil Simon comedy, except it resonates with its author's voice. A mix of farce and family, comedy and drama, it's just a hilarious play.

This production, directed by Stuart Meltzer, is in part a showcase for Larsen, who wrote and directs. But even though he does both extremely well, it's just a great script. Great songs can help us recognize greater singers, but the best songs often sound beautiful with various singers. Larsen gives a great comic performance (as does the cast) in this show, but the writing is so humorous, heartfelt and clean, this is a play that could and, I hope will, lead to other productions.

One can easily imagine other actors eager to present this play that starts with a man who wants to hire actors to portray his parents, whom he misses. He soon finds he has created a family with these actors. When real family shows up, things go off the rails even more. It is a comedy about theater, family, but most of all it's just the funniest play I've seen in years.

Allen Lewis Rickman, Jason Guy, Jeni Hacker, Ronnie Larsen and Gabriell Salgado round out a perfectly cast ... cast. Each portrays their character with a light, comic touch, yet not as a joke jukebox, but as a person caught in a comic situation. The comedy comes from character, not from jokes inserted into conversation. Actors hungry for work can't refuse the offer to portray real people even if the somewhat suspect stage is someone's apartment. We see Larsen revert to his childhood, as the actors portraying his parents infantilize him. But things, as things will, spin out of control.

"The Actors" could be called a well made comedy, but that has connotations of the author's hand moving characters around like chess pieces. This play, first produced in Florida, is a great show for anyone who has ever been a son, daughter or parent. It is full of love and laughter and that is what truly animates this beyond pages of great dialogue. We watch our main character move through the maze of his emotions, reaching revelations.

Humor publications sometimes make much more serious points than the pedantic talking heads who draw facile lessons from life. That's sort of what happens here. "The Actors" is a play that deserves to be done again and again. Bravo to Ronnie Larsen for writing and performing in this show presented at Theater Row.

This comedy is one that, with such a good script, probably could be wonderful even with a less gifted cast. See "The Actors" if you get a chance. Present "The Actors" if you want to win over audiences. We need more plays that have less pretention and more psychological truth and dialogue, making laughter easy for those watching, even if writing so well is deceptively difficult, proved by the lack of many, if any, other comedies of quite this caliber on the stage.