Word: pipering
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...group of folks are contemplating [JapanProfessor of Finance Thomas R.] Piper and [WalkerProfessor of Business Administration F. Warren]McFarlan as possible candidates," he says...
...Piper's protagonist, Zedekiah Maine (Geoff Gladstone), is a high school English teacher with a great deal of bad luck. While walking to the apartment of his girlfriend Angela (Sara Smith), Zed is mugged by Ernest Bugger (Mike McGraw), who takes his wallet, money, overcoat and the flowers he was going to give Angela. Ernest is immediately arrested, but the process Zed goes through between the arrest and the actual trial is a trial in and of itself for Zed. The police harass him, he is mistaken for a transvestite and his students harangue him. Everything culminates in the final...
...performances of the enormous cast (some of the posters read: "You must know someone in it") are mostly passable. All of Piper's characters are cartoonish, but they are played with a great deal comedic prowess. The standout is the prosecuting attorney, outrageously played by Paul Siemens. Loud, obnoxious, and similar to William Jennings Bryant in his legal style, Siemens overwhelms everyone on stage as he assassinates Zed's character. The bland, short-skirted defense attorney (Emmy Cattani) never had a chance, in legalese or stage presence...
Additionally, the way that Piper has his actors sit in the audience and enter the stage from their seats is distracting. In the high school scene, he puts Zed's students in the audience and they interact with him from their seats. Much of the audience cannot see the actors this way. They are left staring at the back of their heads...
...Trial" hits its stride when Piper pushes the comedy. Renard's miming, the scene when Zed is mistaken for a transvestite, and the moments when Zed's student's stomach flu "affects" everyone else are all hysterical. The chaotic finale in the courtroom is the most insane moment of the play. Directing the entire enormous cast in such a tornado of action is to Piper's credit...