Review: Humor Redeems ‘Soapbox’ Sketches

“Soapbox Derby: A New Works Festival,” which opened this weekend accompanied by apparently no campus publicity whatsoever, is a collection of five mildly funny comic sketches on the topic of public speaking. Interspersed with the sketches are a series of vaguely political, mildly funny addresses.

As is often the case with a show of new works, it is difficult to tell whether the sketches themselves were poor or whether the acting style failed to match. Certainly none of the dialogue was particularly awful, and all the sketches showed some promise; the simple fact that the show just wasn’t all that funny despite solid acting, however, suggests a failure of the script.

Animal Boat, by William Donnelly and directed by Heather McNamara, concerns Schabato (Kevin LaVelle), a press secretary for a large Enron-like chemical and petroleum company. Schabato relates an increasingly absurd series of diasasters that have befallen the corporation—corrupt executives, oil spills and chemical spills—before revealing his dissatisfaction with his career and his college ambition to become a writer of children’s songs. The sketch’s highlight is LaVelle’s performance of the title song—Donnelly may well have a career as a children’s song writer ahead of him—but the actual speech Schabato delivers is neither plausible enough nor ridiculous enough to be funny, with a few exceptions (as when Schabato mentions that the New York Times has covered the spill under the headline of “The Worst Thing Ever”), and his life story fails to move.

Talking Tips, by John O’Brien, directed by Lisa Burdick, is the funniest of the five sketches. It takes place in a public speaking class taught by the eccentric and slightly irreputable Orville Goodpecker, who advertises donuts to attract newcomers like Ben (Andy Riel) and then gives him a single, individually wrapped donut. Goodpecker teaches his class with dictatorial control until Lt. Falk (Greg Luzitano) and Evangeline Rasputin (Kristy Leahy) come to arrest him for illegal flyering, but he is saved by the inept but heartfelt speech of his student Isadora (Lara Krepps), who secretly has a crush on him. Though Isadora’s final speech fails to be the hilarious setpiece it should have been, the various chracterizations—the pedantic teacher, the incompetent regular, and the irreverrent newcomer—play well off of each other, and the plot, such as it is, is tightly constructed.

Residential Debates, by Sean Barney, portrays a domestic squabble between Phoebe (Kristy Leahy) and her husband Martin (Andy Riel) that begins over Phoebe’s desire to watch the primaries on TV instead of talking to Martin. Their argument is staged as a debate, complete with podiums and a point system. The debate structure serves to stylize the constantly-repeated arguments familiar to many relationships, but at the same time the squabbles that actually resulted—over snoring, going out with friends, and the messiness of the house—are too close to real life to make the viewing the piece much different from watching a couple argue the old-fashioned way.

Back Room, by Dan Milstein, directed by Kristin Baker, depicts the situation of three writers known only as A (Greg Luzitano), B (Ron Rittinger) and C (Lara Krepps). Their boss (Kevin LaVelle) instructs them through an intercom, and they write him speeches for all occassions—flirtation, commisseration, and an inexplicable situation in which he stands on an ornate chair to address some sort of audience. The scenario’s setup is delightfully bizzaire and enigmatic, but the implementation—a bunch of people stand around trying to think of things to write, occasionally interrupted by a disembodied voice-—is somewhat of a letdown.

Bathroom Humor, by James Henderson, directed by Dave Poole, is about three Wal-Mart employees. Bertrand (Andy Riel), by dint of becoming the fastest checkout clerk on the Eastern seaboard, has been given the honor of making an inspirational speech, but before his speech he has gotten drunk and cloistered himself in the bathroom to vomit. He is encouraged by his co-worker Gary Girard (Kevin LaVelle) and tormented by the diabolical Stuart Steadfast (Greg Luzitano), who wants to steal his glory. Stuart’s momentary presence is the best part of this sequence; his cruel, demonic laughter is accompanied by melodramatic flashes of thunder and lightning. The rest of the sketch tends to drag, and by the end, when Bertrand starts talking with the toilet, it has lapsed into sheer baffling nonsense.

—Crimson reviewer Alexandra D. Hoffer can be reached at hoffer@fas.harvard.edu.