'Hole' lotta nothing
by MICHAEL SMITH, 2/23/2005
Jae Wilson (left) and Dale Sams appear in the Midwestern Theater Troupe's production of "Down the Ol' Hole." A. CUERVO / Tulsa World
Midwestern Theater Troupe production is boring at best
Due to the experimental nature of any original work by Midwestern Theater Troupe co-founder John Cruncleton, there's a nervous anticipation in arriving at the playhouse because you never know what's going to happen.
The trouble is that sometimes upon exiting the Nightingale Theater after witnessing one of these creations, there's a perplexing question as to what the play was trying to accomplish.
If playwright-director-actor Cruncleton's goal was to create an overplotted metaphysical fantasy with a littering of incoherent ideas and goofball characters, he's succeeded with "Down the Ol' Hole," which opened last week.
This snore of a play is a post-apocalyptic Western set in southeastern Oklahoma, where a group of cowboys -- hogpunchers, actually -- are preparing to make a stand. It's not clear what the stand is against. It's not the only thing that's not clear.
One can hardly help but look at the more than 20 trees that make up the set design, think about that "forest for the trees" saying and realize that you can't see the story here for all the subtext.
It seems that years ago the head pigherder, Bob (played by Craig Walter), was visited by an angel who told him to dig a well. He dug, it filled with water, and a pig that drank from it came away singing in tongues. Seriously.
Apparently that well on the hill has a curse, and there's some connection between the curse and something the leader of the cowboys is trying to hide, and that's the context in which most of the play's action takes place. They've returned to this spot years later because signs have determined this to be the time of the angel's reappearance.
What other action is there? The fellow cowboys wonder if they should believe this story about the well, but they decide to stick by their pal. Bob's wife and daughter also wonder why they're back at this odd place. It's all a big, trivial mystery.
There's a lot of stuff packed into this 150-minute work, from warring Indian tribes and militia, an inheritance of Pixy Stix and Gobstoppers, female outlaws who provide golden showers for the cowboys' gear, existential philosophy about childbirth and an old coot who seems to be the long-lost brother of Gabby Johnson, the "Blazing Saddles" character who spoke "authentic frontier gibberish."
A simple John Wayne western, this ain't.
Ironically, the mush-mouthed fellow in long red underwear (played by Cruncleton) could often be understood better than many of the other cast members, including a jabbering Jae Wilson, a slurring Dale Sams, Joseph Gomez, Owen Froeschle, Susan Webb, Sarah Cruncleton, Angela Adams and Lynn Kelsey.
Some, but not all, of these players spoke in such measured, slurred tones as to be incomprehensible on a regular basis (but never for the many profanities). One would think that if the playwright valued his words, he'd ask that they be made audible. The Nightingale Theater space is tiny, and achieving these soft-spoken levels was actually quite an accomplishment.
While what we could make out of the script was more accessible than some of Cruncleton's past shows, it still smacked of a work-in-progress affair and wasn't nearly as interesting as the circus-based fever dreams "Romolo the Great" and "Warm, Delicious Play."
The one thing that we've never accused Cruncleton and his theater family of being is boring -- until now. This company is capable of much more.
The Midwestern Theater Troupe production of "Down the Ol' Hole" continues with 8 p.m. performances Thursday-Saturday at the Nightingale Theater, 1416 E. Fourth St. Tickets are $8 and may be reserved by calling 583-8487 [As of February 2007, 633-8666].