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| Ben Gierhart, Amy Steiger, and Natalie Fields in Patricia Milton's Reduction in Force. Photo – The Bard's Town. |
Reduction in Force
By Patricia Milton
Directed by Beth Tantanella and Scot Atkinson
Review by Rachel White
Entire contents are copyright © 2013 Rachel White.
All rights reserved.
Reduction in Force, a comedy by Patricia Milton, opened at The
Bard's Town and deals with the economic crisis and the corporate greed and
callousness that allowed it to happen. It is a true-to-life farce about the
backstabbing and conniving that goes on at the top.
Icarus Wealth Management, a shady Wall Street type
firm (investing in hurricanes and trading in human organs are possible next
moves), is downsizing to protect its profit margins. The screaming and begging
of recently laid-off employees can frequently be heard off stage. Trader Gabby
Deeds (Natalie Fields) must choose between two employees: her longtime
secretary, Anita (Amy Steiger); and her new attractive mentee, Mitch (Ben
Gierhart). What follows is a backstabbing fight to the death for the job.
The production makes use of some fine talent, and
the play couldn’t have been better cast. Natalie Fields falls naturally into
the larger-than-life role of Gabby Deeds. She has a deep, commanding voice and
strong presence; and when she takes the stage she demands attention. She plays
Gabby with a charming, happy narcissism that belies the evil she is willing to
commit; because she is funny, we like her in spite of it. Gierhart and Steiger
have chemistry together, especially when they begin to plot against Gabby. They
are good foils for Fields, as they play crafty and anxious underlings against
her oblivious confidence. They are like the clever mice to her powerful cat.
The problem with the play is that the characters
are often painted too broadly even for a farce and the play tends to stay on
one level. This slackens much of the tension in the first act, and the scenes
drag. If the characters were played more realistically but with the
ridiculously high stakes of farce it would be easier for the audience to
connect with them. Part of this is the direction, but part of it is that the
script meanders quite a bit early on before it sharpens in Act II.
Still, the world of the play itself is unique and
one we don’t get to peer into or lampoon very often. The actors have wonderful
comic moments. There is one gag in which secret information is written on a
soft taco shell so that the information can be easily eaten and destroyed at a
moment’s notice. At one point, Gabby demands that Anita hand over the taco shell
that contains an important password; Anita desperately crams it into her mouth.
When Ms. Milton writes in her program notes that a lot of the material in the piece appears farcical but
is based on actual events, it’s the kind of brilliant touches like the taco
shell gag where you have to ask, did that really happen?
Reduction in Force
July 25-August 4, 2013
The Bard's Town Theatre
1801 Bardstown Road
Louisville, KY 40205
(502) 749-5275
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