Greater Tuna

Critiqued by Holly Bartges

Three times?

Three times she had to do it?

Pearl not only had to go through the motions of what happened to that $2000 Bird Dog, Ripper, she had to call her nephew Stanley and tell him all about it, insisting in her direct-Pearl-way he has to come over right now to help cover up the evidence. When he jumped to her request, they both had to demonstrate just how the evidence would be covered, three times. Aie-e-e-e-e!

Tuna 1: Seth Maisel as Thurston Wheelis and Austin Terrell as Arles StruviePhoto Credit: Dell Domnik

The Denver Victorian Playhouse takes on the hilarious comedy Greater Tuna, the third smallest town in Texas with all of its wild and wooly small, small town characters. There are 20 of them running wild and untethered in and around Tuna snipping, snapping, sucking up to each other, and minding everyone else’s business except their own.

Under the direction of Wade P. Wood and his sharp eye for set design, Greater Tuna gallops into reality with a natural comedy team rivaling the best of them, stretching all the way back to Laurel and Hardy.

Seth Meisel and Austin Terrell march, gimp, limp, drag, and bounce all the while immersed in small, small town characters interacting on a daily basis.

Crystal clear, sidesplitting hilarity flows from the Vic’s stage from the voice traps, body language and instantaneous changed personas concocted by Meisel and Terrell.

Susan Lyles performed a masterful job of designing costumes for each character, defining everyone to a “T” The masterful art form of Meisel and Terrell are the ones who fill out the costumes bringing the unforgettable characters to unruly life.

Thurston Wheeler (Meisel) and Arles Struvie (Terrell) set the stage as companioned radio announcers for Tuna, Texas with radio station OKKK, announcing all of the small town news, adding their drawled-hiccupped-down-to-earth- commentary.

The innocent boyish heart as big as all out doors penchant for homeless dogs, Petey Fisk (Terrell) just won’t take no for an answer where dogs are concerned for the local humane society. He comes close to giving up on the feisty Chihuahua, Yippy, who he featured five times as pet of the week, No one wants him, not even Jody. When push comes to shove, the limpid brown eyes with the busy mouth, wins out. It’s a letter he writes to Pearl bringing on the Ripper affair. For Pearl, dogs and chickens just don’t go together,

Seth Maisel as Pearl Burras and Austin Terrell as Vera CarpPhoto Credit: Dell Domnik

When Petey is really up a creek over finding a dog a home, he knows exactly what he can do. He goes to Jody Bumiller, (Terrell), and sees to it one of his homeless charges follows Jody home.

Bertha Bumiller, Jody’s Mom has her hands full and lets the world know just how full those hands of hers really are. Played to the hilt by Meisel, it’s sometimes difficult to hear her demanding speech because Meisel takes her to, until now, untapped limits. Those dogs must stay outside. Is it five, six, or is it by now, seven dogs? Funny how when she is by herself the dogs manage to get in, upstairs, downstairs, on the table, on the chairs.

Meisel and Terrell work in pantomime, and they have it nailed. Bertha’s captured moments with the dogs, keeping them all in place in their romping, makes one believe you can actually see the dogs running circles around her.  Poor Bertha. She not only has to worry over Jody, and all the dogs, and who is going to follow him home today. There’s Stanley who spent four years in reform school now clinging to life in a lackadaisical manner, and his twin sister Charlene insisting upon wearing Stanley’s jeans. Quite honestly, they don’t fit.

 She makes them fit. What gnaws at her bummed out heart is she just can’t understand why she was never chosen to become a member of the cheerleading squad. Everyone seems to understand why except her.

Terrell has a time changing from Jody to Stanley to Charlene, while Maisel’s Bertha rattles on in her hysterical, complaining, bossy, overbearing manner.

One of the funniest moments of this show happens because of Karalyn star Pytel’s brilliant lighting design and Wood’s wacky musical concept when Meisel takes on R. R. Snavely,  R. R. has everyone laughing up his or her sleeve. As a self proclaimed UFOlogist, and the town drunk, he insists he has seen a UFO right there in Tuna. The script calls for the actor playing R. R. to fake playing the fiddle. No faking needed here. Maisel’s numerous talents, besides incredible comedic timing, includes fiddle playing along with the viola and mandolin. Meisel insists he is rusty on the fiddle since he stopped playing seriously after high school. If what he does is rusty, he’s been doing a whale of a lot of “CLR-ing”. No rust shows up in this performance. The bright white light in his eyes is an image you won’t soon forget.

Didi Snavely, bravely portrayed by Terrell, owns Didi’s Used Weapons and loudly and often proclaims, “If we can’t kill it, it’s immortal.”

Terrell’s portrayal of Vera Carp, very much the town snob demonstrating it as Vice President of the Smut-Snatchers of the New Order will knock your eyes out parading in a short pink dress. As Meisel said, “His legs go up to his neck”. Seems a crime someone like Vera should have such gorgeous legs, or is it Terrell he’s talking about? However one wants to look at it, it’s a scream no matter how the lighting glints.

Greater Tuna, written by Jaston Williams, Joe Sears, and Ed Howard as a soft affectionate spread of small town Texas life, wedded to a sharp biting satirical portrait, first appeared in 1981 in Austin Texas. On the heels of Greater Tuna, the sharp comedic writers followed with A Tuna Christmas, Red, White, and Tuna, and Tuna Does Vegas. The characters are wondrously identifiable, especially for those having grown up in small towns. To make it work, however, to make it all extremely funny, the two actors must have fire, spit, comedic timing, brilliant lighting effects, off beat but believable costuming, and breath taking fast paced costume and character changing with split second nosedives from one scenario to another.

The Denver Victorian Playhouse has it wrapped up with Masel and Terrell and the crew. Without the assistance of Kelly Rae Rocky and Kristen Case, Meisel and Terrell would be up a creek without a paddle or a canoe.

Generally a theatre chooses a play then looks for the right actors for each character. Wood did it backwards, but then Wood frequently does things backwards according to the norm. He wanted a vehicle to showcase the talents of Meisel and Terrell. Greater Tuna fit the bill. Fit it as snugly as Vera’s tight pink paying-respects-to-the-judge-in-his-coffin-at-the-funeral-parlor-dress.

The Vic’s Greater Tuna production is definitely one not to be missed. Matters not how many times you have seen it. Meisel owns Thurston Whellis, Elmer Watkins, Bertha Bumiller, Yippy, Leonard Childers, Pearl Burras, R. R. Snavely, Sheriff Givens, and Hank Bumiller. Terrell owns Arles Struvie, Didi Snavely, Harold Dean Lattimer, and Charlene Bumiller. Chad Hartford, Phinas Blye, and Vera Carp. All the while you will wonder why all this talk about Maisel and Terrell because they don’t seem to be anywhere around.

What a kick it would be for Williams, Sears, and Howard to see these two in action. Chances are they might never recover.

That’s a dream scenario, but anyone within the Greater Metropolitan Denver yearning for down-home, hilarious comedy perfected with magical insight has a glorious opportunity. Don’t miss.  Call now for reservations. The laughter will carry you through a week of Sundays.

Greater Tuna
By Jaston Williams, Joe Sears & Ed Howard; Directed by Wade P. Wood