Word: zed
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...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...
Brett Conner's Renard, a mime and Zed's former college roommate, is the center of two of the play's most absurb and amusing moments: a scene from a play in which he plays a door and the scene in which he testifies for the prosecution. There isn't anything quite as wonderfully weird as non sequitur mime...
...Zed's gimmicky firstyear high school students steal scenes as well. The one with the stomach flu (Felix Cheung) and the pretentious actress (Karin Lewicki) are the most memorable...
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...