Only the puppets get bruised
The man in the box office at the Downstairs Cabaret Theatre
summed it up well: “It’s a real cute love story, actually.”
The name of the show — Trick
Boxing — combined with the promise of a love story set visions of a Punch
and Judy-esque barrage dancing. But no: It’s really just a romantic comedy,
told very well, with engaging narrative tricks. And the only ones who get beat
up are puppets.
Two actors, Brian Sostek and Megan McClellan, tell the tale,
with Sostek doing multiple duty as tricky boxing promoter, naïve boxing
protégé, dead once-boxer brother, mob boss puppetmaster, boxing ref, and the
bookmaker in a sweat-breaking tour de force. He’s an amazing character actor
and a lot of fun to watch. McClellan mainly plays the light-on-her-feet Bella
(and she does this very well), but she also shows up in the filmstrip-like
instructional segment, which is hilarious.
And that’s the thing: This quick little number never gets
dull because chunks of the action are shown through almost cinematic devices.
We don’t see Dancing Danny learn how to box, we see an instructional “video”;
we don’t see the actual boxing matches, we see toys duke it out in a tiny
boxing ring; we don’t see Danny and Bella simply fall in love, we watch them
dance.
Because the acting is so good and the lush vignettes are
held together so seamlessly, a difficult plotline would be too much.
Which is good, because the story is simple, and we’ve heard
it before: It’s the Depression, a street-smart promoter tries to turn a
goodhearted immigrant into a boxer to make a quick buck, but a girl enters the
equation (“dames and boxing don’t mix”), and the power of love transforms the whole
deal into gold. There’s a twist with a watch that makes its own time, but in
the end that’s really just about love, too.
So there’s the dream for a new life, the triumph of the
underdog, boxing, romance, tough talking, and swing dancing — what else does
a good story need? Just a fresh way to tell it. Which they’ve got.
Freshness may be why the show hit big on the Fringe Festival
circuit (Edinburgh and Vancouver). DCT has done well allying itself with the
Fringe; it’s the source of some of their most interesting shows. Thick, for example, which was at DCT in September 2004 and whose recent New
York City Fringe Festival run was produced in part by Downstairs Cabaret
Theatre, received more than one mention in the NYC press over the last couple
of weeks.
You should go if you
like a goodhearted story with new blood in its veins; fun, quirky storytelling
buoyed by on-the-dime acting and dancing. | Trick Boxing through
Friday, September 9 | Downstairs Cabaret Theatre Center, 540 East Main Street |
$21 | 325-4370, www.downstairscabaret.com
This article appears in Sep 7-13, 2005.
