Renegade Theatre experiments with "The Book of Liz"

by W. Fred Crow

After a minor hiatus it's nice to see Renegade Theatre Experiment back at the stage door. This time its with the brilliantly written little ditty titled, "The Book of Liz." Directed by Sean C. Murphy, the one-act 90-minute charmer is a guaranteed smile. Slightly off-beat and gentle, the tale is brought to life through the fine talent of an ensemble of multi-role playing actors.

Sister Elizabeth Donderstock (Violet Ash) makes cheese balls for the Squeamish clan, a group of common folk engaged in minimal commerce while keeping the world and technology at arms length. Running things around Squeamish is the Rev. Tollhouse (Howard L. Miller), who presents an all too familiar self-righteousness for piety and imperiously runs roughshod over everyone in his domain. Brother Nathaniel Brightbee (Vic Prosak) believes he should be in charge of making the community's cash crop, the cheese balls, and asks Tollhouse to remove Donderstock. Tollhouse orders Sister Elizabeth to write out the recipe and give it to Brightbee. She does but is so distraught over loosing her identity that she leaves the community and goes to a bigger city. Left to himself, Brightbee seems unable to perfect the cheese ball making process and fails at making a viable commodity to sell. The community is in financial trouble. There seems to be a missing ingredient. Maybe Donderstock deliberately left something off the list.

Sister Butterworth (nicely played by Evangeline Maynard), is a fair-weather friend of Donderstock. She appears delighted in her busy-body work, and pleased in the decline of those around her.

As Donderstock wanders about she's assisted by Oxana (delightfully played by Christine Schisano) and Yvone (Prosak), a married Ukrainian couple with cockney accents on the brink of being deported. Donderstock now known as Liz learns modern ways and ends up successfully working as a waitress at the Plymouth Crock. She's to be promoted but she sweats something terrible. When she's also told she'll have to wear a more revealing uniform than she is willing she decides to remain true to her values and quits.

Ash was captivating and engaging as the thoughtful and simple Sister Elizabeth. Using her as the central character, the play provides a study into self worth and personal value and the foundation we base our choices on. While Ash wonderfully plays Elizabeth she has a stint as the hilarious Brother Hesikiah, a grunt that just has to be heard.

With so many characters and so little space, let me say there were strong performances by all making RTE's production of "The Book of Liz" a must-see.

"The Book of Liz" plays through Sept. 29 at the Historic Hoover Theater. The theater is located at 1635 Park Ave., San Jose. Call (408) 351-4440 for more information.

W. Fred Crow is a local music director and frequent attendee of the arts. Contact him at wfredcrow@yahoo.com.