Word: reiffel
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...sane and the insane. The play is a wild conglomeration of mistaken identities, costume changes (performed on stage), the disappearance of characters who never existed, and other madcap antics, all of which are somehow untangled in the final scene. Highlight performances are given by Leo-Pierre Roy and David Reiffel, who ham it up beautifully as incompetent representatives of the psychiatric profession...
...Wells, as the three-headed dragon, changes his character slightly each time he changes faces. First as a self-satisfied military officer, then as cowardly tyrant, and finally as a simpering, giggling despot who knows he has crippled the souls of his people, Wells is a perfect villain. David Reiffel is equally good in his role as the not-quite-sane mayor, who switches mental illnesses to suit the moment. Charles Weinstein, as the mayor's conniving son who gives up his fiancee to the dragon in return for a position as private secretary, may overdo his sliminess somewhat...
While Mad about Mintz was salvaged by a stunning second act, some of the most effective sequences in American in Purgatory come near the beginning. LaZebnik is at his sharpest in a parody of psychoanalysis, where the analyst (David Reiffel) exults in his patient's lapses of memory and tells him pedantically that his suffering is necessary, since "only through suffering can you achieve pain." In another beautifully controlled sequence, an imaginary monopoly game becomes a metaphor for life; in this game without dice, escape from jail is possible only through strategems appropriated directly from The Wizard...