We noticed a small colored poster plastered on a bulletin board while standing in line to checkout at the single supermarket in town. The African Queen was going to be presented at Glen Lake Church during the week we were visiting this beautiful area of “up north” Michigan. Was this going to be a showing of the famous movie over four nights? The poster hinted otherwise with the co-director credits.
The price of admission was free with refreshments provided. Donations appreciated. We circulated the idea of attending this very off-off-off-off Broadway event and friends began to get very excited. It turns out that they are rabid fans of Waiting For Guffman. That 1996 mockumentary film by Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy spoofed a community theater and its quirky amateur performers.
Given this blog, my monthly podcast and those reviews I have written for other online sites, the anticipation escalated. The group hilariously postured that I was the Guffman character, a critic from New York planning to review a local community theater production. We arrived at the church and were warmly greeted. The audience totaled a dozen people. We were four of them.
The African Queen is based on the 1951 movie and was performed as a staged reading in two acts with fourteen scenes. With scripts in hand, the movie is reenacted with four roles. Rapids were traversed and bullets flew as the adventure unfolded. The entire play felt a bit long to be honest. The material is so visual that it is quite difficult to conjure up all the imagery needed to effectively dramatize this adventure. Some scenes probably should have been shortened and others sped up. Janet Stilpicevich was very good as the narrator and could certainly have been utilized to provide more descriptive color.
Like nearly all theatrical endeavors, there are positive aspects of this production to celebrate. First is the set design. The African Queen was an outline of PVC pipes with a black barrel and painted smokestack placed in the center of the deck. The ship filled the entire stage and was a believable rendition of the boat assembled with little money and winning creativity.
My second call out is for the sound design by lead actor Ron Smith. This play utilizes sound effects from the movie frequently throughout the performance. Water rushing, bullets flying and the musical soundtrack are heard. I have to say that I was impressed by how accurately that was incorporated into the play. The timing was spot on. I’ve seen plenty of shows with much greater budgets and significantly higher ticket prices not achieve this level of accuracy.
Last but not least are the actors playing Charlie Allnut and Rose Sayre. Kathering Hepburn famously played Rose and Janice Ross showed us some of her prickliness. An early scene in Act II where the two were arguing was the best one of the show.
Humphrey Bogart won an Oscar for portraying Mr. Allnut. Ron Smith was quite entertaining as this larger than life character. The drinking scene that ends with him passing out on the deck was a high point. Slightly older actors take a few extra seconds to collapse into a drunken slumber. The slow motion effect was very fun indeed.
The two leads were also the co-directors of this play. At the beginning of the performance, Mr. Smith explained that his cousin suggested The African Queen for their next production. Both were life-long vacationers to this picturesque locale of natural beauty. His cousin is now suffering from Parkinson’s Disease along with serious dementia. The moment was touching and nicely expressed the feeling of community that this small troupe works hard to nuture.
One friend was chatting with a woman at the reception table who told us she will be directing a show later this year. He volunteered to try out and received an email the next day about auditions for the October run of The Long, Hot September. Whether he will summon the nerve and put on the greasepaint remains to be seen. (He did say privately, however, that he will not do any nude scenes.) The Glen Arbor Players are a community theater creating their own brand of magic in a very small town. Guffman was happy to make an appearance and support their mission.