WHAT THE EUNUCH SAW
nytheatre.com review by Hope Cartelli
August 15, 2002
If the Eunuch could articulate better
than I what we both saw, I bet we’d still agree that it was a simple,
engaging enough premise that was, depending on how you look at it,
executed either too lazily or too maniacally. A queen (Shana Rose Harvey) must have sex every hour on the hour to fend off possible death from an affliction known simply as "The Woman’s Disease." This necessitates her staying in her room and being attended to by her king (John Krasinski). Concurrently, the castle is constantly under siege by the neighboring enemy king and nobody wants queenie to know what is going on. What to do? Keep her "bizz-ay", I guess, with the Eunuch (Randall T. Sullivan), who somehow delivers, though he lacks the necessaries eunuchs usually lack. Enter, as the plot—what I could follow of it—heats up, a "traveler" in Oriental garb (Jorge Cordova) and a drunkard resembling a lost member of the Rat Pack (David Edison). Each is after the queen’s crown jewels—both sets.
A bad pun, I know, but it evokes the type of Catskills shenanigans going on here. Black Stone Theater Company wants to take "the classic sex farce a step or two farther." I advise them to start back at step one and perhaps by mastering the classic form they’ll reach their goal in a year or two. Playwright Emily O‘Dell is striving for modern farce, but what does that mean when you don’t address the tradition it came from? Eunuch misses the comedic gold mine under its nose by forgoing inclusion of almost all elements that go into making a good farce good.
Instead O’Dell and director Isaac Robert Hurwitz drop what seem to be some promising actors into half-hearted attempts at commedia grandness, half-baked staging of what could have been some very good physical comedy bits—including one with the king disguised as a French maid—and a half-deaf ear to the calling of consistent, coherent plot and dialogue.
Hopefully, over time, Black Stone Theater will learn better how to deliver the, ahem, goods.
