Word: tom-tom
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...theater, as in the real world, things are rarely exactly what they seem to be. Such is the case in Harvard-Radcliffe Summer Theater's second production, "Goose and Tom-Tom." The play is basically a bizarre and surrealistic trip through the power struggles between two best friends, their lovers and one of their lover's brothers. Like the caricatures that Tom-Tom, one of the main characters, draws and tapes up throughout the show, the play itself sketches some of the numerous fears and fantasies we all hold deep inside...
...best friend Tom-Tom (Michael Lopez-Saenz). The two cuss at each other, gleefully plan to use their new guns on someone, and discuss how Goose thinks he's a frog and Tom-Tom fears he's haunted by witches. They also joke about kidnapping Bingo's sister so Goose can have sex with her. Enter Loraine (Jordanna Brodsky), Tom-Tom's petite and insane lover who has both men so wrapped around her fingers that they let her put pins into their voodoo dolls' arms to prove their manliness to her. Later, after...
...second act of "Goose and Tom-Tom" is just as odd as the first. Bingo (Jesse Hawkes) wanders in looking for his lost sister, whom he is rumored to be sleeping with too. In a "Reservoir Dogs"-type violence-fest, Goose and Tom-Tom beat Bin-go into near oblivion, trying to get him to confess to stealing Lorraine's jewels, which he eventually does. Lorraine then orders Goose to kill him. After giving Bingo one last chance to see his sister, Goose leads him outside to be shot. Shots are heard, and the stage plunges...
Goose and Tom-Tom are by far the most realistic characters in the show. Goose is played with the same enthusiastic and endearing stupidity--but none of the goofy "Hee-Haw" type humor--that Amblad brought to last spring's "As You Like It." Lopez-Saenz gives an equally powerful performance as the darker, more haunted Tom-Tom. The camaraderie between the two actors, though bumbling and vulgarity-drenched, is excellent and rarely found in Harvard theater...
Although many of the themes in "Goose and Tom-Tom" may be difficult to appreciate fully, the overall symbolism and the intriguing individual performances in the show make it worthwhile. (Incidentally, everyone in the production should be applauded for working in the unbelievably hot and stuffy conditions of the Loeb X.) This production will probably not go down in Harvard dramatic history, but it has certainly left its own unconventional mark...