Word and Thought

Word and Thought: Butting Swelled Heads

Running Time: 2 hrs, 20 min

Conquest just ain't what it used to be. Time was, a guy with a little initiative and a few good men could take over the known world from Macedonia all the way to India. Nowadays, just trying to conquer the American theatre is 10 times the effort and liable to involve twice as much bloodshed, not to mention an aneurysm-inducing assortment of screaming matches, hissy fits, alcoholic binges, backstage seductions, and don't-you-know-who-I-am diva rants.

That's the lesson for a young playwright in this new backstage comedy by Southwestern University graduate Joshua Lellis. Fledgling writer Martin has penned a biographical drama about Alexander the Great, and Lellis' play tracks Martin's play on its disaster-ridden lurch toward opening night. Actors get into fights or hop into bed with each other; the director fires the designers, then stops directing; the playwright can't stop making radical changes to the script; actors quit days before opening; the producer tries to schmooze the critics; and the performance itself, well, let's just say that it fares about as well as a certain zeppelin trying to dock at Lakehurst, New Jersey.

Fortunately, Lellis' world premiere runs much, much, much more smoothly than that of his protagonist. Oh, this show from Cameo Productions and the Austiner Ensemble is not without its missteps; Lellis' writing meanders at times, and in spots he lays on the satire with a heavy hand, plus lengthy scene changes involving the cumbersome movement of sofas and other heavy furniture (by the cast, no less) regularly rob the story of its comic momentum. Still, Word and Thought generally glides along on the talents of its four performers, all of whom play at least two roles and all of whom appear quite familiar with the egos that run amok in the world of the stage.

Taking center stage with the most inflated sense of self is Mark Riddell as the actor playing Alexander; his Ralph -- which the character insists be pronounced Rafe (which should give you some idea of where his head is at) -- has the puffed-up strut of the peacock and an acting style that equates volume with emotional power. Miraculously, it earns him the attentions of his female co-star -- Ted Meredith, flirting with delicious subtlety -- but it also earns him the wrath of Michael Pappas' Tim, who's cast as Aristotle but is more interested in playing the caustic critic of his preening colleague. Then there are the professional critics: a pair of self-important would-be tastemakers named Georgina (Riddell, blowing chilly intellectualism) and Kenneth (David Bowers radiating British condescension). In one of the play's cleverest scenes, Lellis has them wooed separately but simultaneously by the double-talking producer, who tells each what he wants to hear; it's a whirlwind of flattery and cajolery, and Meredith rises to the challenge, delivering this epic snow job in an invigorating flurry. The enterprise seems to infect everyone connected to it with delusions of grandeur and vanity. By the time the curtain rises, even Martin, who begins the play as a rather modest fellow, is convinced he's a genius, which Pappas portrays by adding a sheen of smugness to the character.

Watching this conceited crew butt their swelled heads on the way to opening night is much of the pleasure of Word and Thought, as it is with so many backstage comedies. We know how much the theatre relies on outsized personalities, and we enjoy peeking behind the curtain to see them clash and even cause the carefully constructed illusion of the theatre to come crashing down around them. Lellis is working in the tradition of Richard Sheridan's The Critic, George Kelly's The Torch-Bearers, and Michael Frayn's Noises Off, to name a few. His characters may not conquer the stage, but they manage to prove that a theatrical catastrophe is still good for a laugh.