“The Curious Savage” Brings Flaky Humor and the Value of Foolishness to Grange Stage

Reading the newspaper is forbidden at the Cloisters until the Curious Savage comes. Left to right: Zach Knight, Katie Zwilling, Luann Pamatian, Lesley Liddle, Lin McNulty and Tom Gossett

In the depths of winter, the Actors Theater of Orcas Island would be hard pressed to stage a more effective pick-me-up than the sweet, sassy and provocative “The Curious Savage,” which opened last weekend and plays this coming Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings.

The play’s action takes place at “The Cloisters,” a psychiatric sanitarium, in the 1950s.

Sharper than a serpent’s tooth is an ungrateful child, and Ethel Savage, played down to the ground by Lesley Liddle, is beset by three of the most ungrateful wretches ever given life: Ron Hermann plays her jaded martinet son, the senator; Maura O’Neill plays the daughter who squanders her fortune on husbands’ and John Mazzarella plays an incompetent judge.

Ethel, endowed with great wealth from her husband’s estate, values the foolish desires that warm our hearts and make life interesting. She intends to use her wealth turning these foolish desires into reality for many — the Happiness Fund. Her children want the money for themselves, and so have thrown her into the funny house, where Tony Lee plays the warm, often-pompous and sometimes surprisingly wise doctor and Maria Massey plays the caring nurse with a secret motivation.

There, as Ethel, Lesley greets the fellow inmates with a scintillating charm and no-nonsense graciousness that makes me wish she were my mom,no matter what how her selfish children view her.

Despite institutionalized preconceptions, Ethel brings out the best in her cohabitants at Cloisters:

The concert pianist (Zach Knight) who’s suffered a bankruptcy of confidence;

The mathematical genius Hannibal (played by Tom Gossett), reduced to sawing away on a violin and reciting statistical facts as the basis of his conversation;

The homely, neurotic and outspoken Fairy (Katie Zwillig) who tells it like it is (for her) to anyone who will listen, as in “My parents are emotional albinos;”

The housewife Florence (Luann Pamatian), bereft of her child, who fantasizes maternity among the other inmates;

And dear Mrs. Patty (Lin McNulty) who can only enumerate  in the most poetic way the  specific things she hates in the world (while painting her masterpieces).

The pleasures of this play are in seeing the actors romp through a personality “who done it?” and in sharing Ethel Savage’s take on their predicaments, told in rich and witty dialogue:

She responds to Mrs. Patty’s list of “hates” with “But not rhubarb?”

She consoles the pianist’s frustration at not being healed with, “Sometimes we have to humor our doctors.”

She declares, “Freedom is the right to make a wrong decision.”

She consoles Fairy to listen to all the ways people tell us, “I love you;”

And she turns away gratuitous solicitation of the hospital staff with the non-sequitur, “I’ve made my bed and now I wish to know who’s in it.”

For all the light-hearted banter and happy resolution of this comedy, the final scene leaves the audience with a bittersweet affection for this cast of humans, fellow “nuts” whose foolish dreams seem so untenable.

Director Doug Bechtel has done a wonderful job bringing out the unique characteristics of each character, and Lesley Liddle, in particular, does a star turn as the sprightly, happy, opinionated, and gracious woman who believes in investing in kindness and gambling on people.

“The Curious Savage” runs through next weekend, with performances Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 7:30 p.m. at the Grange. Don’t think too much, just listen closely, laugh easily and enjoy this quirky take on societal values.

Tickets for all performances are $10 and are available at Darvills Book Store and on-line at www.orcasactors.com, and at the door.  This play is suitable for all ages. For more information, call 317-5601.