What a strange little play. With the word 'marmalade' in the title, that sweet tasting jelly/jam one spreads on toast at breakfast, it would appear logical to expect RTEs production of "Mr. Marmalade" to be a gentle deliberation of pleasing staged fare. Ah, but we were tossed a curve. Mr. Marmalade, from the not-so-timid mind of playwright Noah Haidle, is the unsettling deep dark comedy of a little 4-year old with an imaginary friend; an adult friend with an adult job, adult language and adult behavior. It's sick and twisted and displays fits of brilliance.Ê
Wolfgang Lancelot Wachalovsky nicely directs this curiosity and the actors present dependable solid characters. The set is sound and the scene changes were agreeably inventive. Yet, not everything in the script works. It's simply too hard to imagine a 4-year old tyke playing house with an adult and having experiences on par with most marital disasters. Didn't ring true. But it's theater - suspend reality and go on.
Lucy was marvelously played by Polina Krasnova. Her impish manner left little doubt she was just a few steps beyond a rug-rat. The sinister slime-ball. Mr. Marmalade, played by Keith Marshall, was everything you'd expect in a sinister slime-ball. Arrogant, self-absorbed, demanding, and violent. While they played house, the pretend spousal abuse bordered on child abuse.
Christina Schisano provided a strong engaging presence as the long-suffering and badly treated assistant, Bradley. Morgan Voellger
and Nizar Ahmed provided a trio each of characters blending reality as Mom and friend to support in Lucy's fantasy. Aeon Brady plays 5-year old Larry, who becomes the other "man" causing Marmalade to become jealous and violent.Mr. Marmalade is written as a comedy, though you'd have to be in a dark mood to accept it as such. It is a twisted drama where, as a parent, you hurt for the neglect Lucy must be going through for her to imagine such situations of pain. This is not a feel-good play, though, for it's quirkiness, it stretches the mind and makes one think. Renegade Theatre pulled this off well.
"Mr. Marmalade" plays at the Renegade Theatre Experiment through November 22. The stage is located at the Hoover Theater, 1635 Park Avenue, San Jose. For box office reservation and informationÊ callÊ 493-0783.