“A Knight To Remember”
Buntport Theatre: 4/18 – 5/11
Brian Colonna
“A Knight to Remember” relates the tale of a
young man who now 35 has never been as happy as he was in fourth grade. Brian
Colonna’s autobiographical illumination of his memories of his fourth grade crush
on a girl who didn’t know where to put her hands touches. Even the orthodontist
from his childhood gets into the mix by way of a tee shirt bearing the
inscription: “Stainless Steel Sex Appeal.”
Simplistic-seeming yet
saucily savvy, Colonna’s script allows for the intervention of other cast
members who take HUGE pleasure in deftly breaking all theatrical rules with
childlike abandon. Only the
audience takes more pleasure in their antics than they do! Examples of these
are: When you don’t have lines you don’t talk. Or if you are not in the scene
then you don’t stick your head out from the side curtain in view of the
audience. “A Knight to Remember” is a return to childhood with reminiscences
based on a book about “Knights.” It’s part “Fellini- Amarcord”(“I Remember”)
and part The Marx Bros’ “A Knight at
the Opera” … without a lot o’
Spam. (Sorry!) There is grandiose movie music that gives the auditory illusion
of Hollywood chivalry at its most florid.
Brian Colonna
In one scene Sir Brian appears as
Sirs Lionel, Sagramore, and Dinadan in projections of various lobby fotos of
Vanessa Redgrave’s Guinevere singing “Take Me to the Fair.” As we listen to the
voice over of Julie Andrews from the Broadway version of “Camelot” we get one
of the most hilariously correct similes in the show. “Her voice is like a clean
white shirt drying in the sun.” Beyond that there is an amazing suit of armor
and a chivalric mount that will make the producers of “War Horse” weep.
Hannah Duggan, Erin Rollman and Brian Colonna
A pencil experiment in which the adorable
Hannah Duggan raps :“where’s my PENcil, where’s MY pencil, WHERE”S my pencil”
while strutting around with a plush black chair pasted to her butt stuns.
Duggan’s hilarious turn as the show’s onstage technical director for sound,
lights and constantly changing and deliciously fluid set design is a hoot!
Erin Rollman is her usual brilliant self
in numerous roles including both of Brian’s parents, his fourth grade teacher
and his fourth grade squeeze as well as a thoroughly minimal and delightfully
innovative Lady of the Lake.
Although I didn’t guffaw a whole lot in
this one ... even after the show I had to sternly tell my happy face to stop
smiling because it was getting EXTREMELY painful and I was starting to fear that
the tragic face of the critic would never again be mine. Happily the tragic has
returned and all is in critical condition again.
To paraphrase the Bard’s
“Midsummer Night’s Dream”: ”The short and the long of it is - Buntport’s show is preferred.”
It’s comic caviar on crackers!
("Not much of a cheese shop tho!")
Through May 11 at 717 Lipan
Street, Denver CO.
720-946-1388 or stuff@buntport.com
Marlowe's Musings
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