Safety in
Numbers
Jean Villepique and Rebecca Drysdale are inspired with Tiny Spectacular
group, but their limits become evident in Magnet Theater duo improv
show.
Having seen Rebecca Drysdale deliver a stand-out and inspired
performance as part of improvisational group Tiny Spectacular at Magnet
Theater, it seemed natural to think that her duo improv show with Jean
Villepique would prove to be equally inspired if not more so.
While amusing, “Villepique and Drysdale, Motherf*ckers!”, which runs
again Friday, January 5 one more time before returning in March, didn’t
reach the same level as the larger group’s show. Perhaps they need the
energy of a larger group to work off, or maybe a larger group simply
generates more ideas to work from, but as a result their duo show didn’t
reach the same heights.
Villepique actually fared better in this show than in Tiny Spectacular,
where she didn’t add much and seemed scattered. Here she delivered
whacked-out characters and ably played straight-person to Drysdale. In
fact, the duo were adept at switching off between being the unusual
characters and contrasting normal ones.
Villepique and Drysdale do sustain long scenes although often have to
move on to the next scene or pre-written introductory bits simply
because they’ve run out of gas with a scene rather than definitively
ended it. They anticipate each other’s moves well and react accordingly,
but often this is more by riffing independently rather than
collaboratively.
This still works to some extent -- as in scenes where Drysdale plays a
male boss who makes Villepique’s secretary uncomfortable because his
shorts are a little too revealing when he sits, as well as another where
Villepique’s single mom (to Drysdale’s daughter) repeatedly snap into
hysterics while she gives her daughter a driving lesson.
At one point, Drysdale does show a bit of what she does with Tiny
Spectacular in a scene where’s she callous at her mom’s funeral, saying
“Good riddance, cunt-bag.”
For the low admission price of this show (and in general at Magnet
Theater), it’s not a letdown per se, but it should be said that there
are improv duos (such as Weirdass, once
reviewed here) who operate on a much higher level.
See prior review of Tiny Spectacular.
|