The bugs are biting and so is the satire in Hip Pocket Theatre’s lively production of the vintage comedy The Billy Club Puppets. Spray cans of Off are available alongside a copy of the program.
Seen on a pleasant evening despite the unpaid flying extras buzzing around Hip Pocket’s quirky outdoor digs in rural Fort Worth, the company’s aggressive take on Spanish playwright Federico García Lorca’s commedia dell’arte-style comedy delivers over-the-top, often uncomfortable laughs.
After all, a girl named Rosita (Grace Hays), who loves Cocoliche (Liam Markland), a poor boy with few prospects, is being forced to marry old, club-wielding Don Cristobita (Coleman Hahn). Her equally vulgar father (Ron Fernandez) wants the rich Don’s money. Written in the 1920s, it’s a story as old as time, or at least theater.
Perhaps to make the plot seem less offensive and more like a gag, The Billy Club Puppets is performed as a play within a play by a company of traveling actors. Intentionally exaggerating their feelings, they over-emote behind thick, clownlike makeup, especially when protesting the marital arrangement. Things get violent.
Adding to the hyperreality are small puppets wielded by the actors as even cruder versions of themselves, leading to a series of hilarious sight gags. There’s something about a puppet-horse galloping at the end of a stick that’s always funny. Laughs also come when Cristobita wields a soft, fat club that looks right out of The Flintstones.
Hip Pocket’s rustic wooden stage, a kind of mini-amphitheater, is the perfect setting for these antics. The set of curtains-upon-curtains occupies a multitude of locations, including a rolling theater on wheels and multilevel platforms around Rosita’s house.
The flowing, patchwork costumes hark back to the theatrical era Lorca is sending up: commedia dell’arte, the broad, politically incorrect brand of comedy that prevailed in Italy for two centuries. Original acoustic music composed and performed by Darrin Kobetich alongside rim-shot-like sound effects provide comic punctuation.
Young, beautiful and immature, Rosita is popular. Part way through the play, a mysterious third suitor (Paul Heyduck) shows up, his face painted to resemble a mask. His eyebrows deserve their own billing. An apparent ex-boyfriend, he’s returned at just the right or wrong time, depending on your perspective.
The brilliance of The Billy Club Puppets lies in the way it buries so much bruising misery under verbal high jinks and physical comedy. Hip Pocket’s production creates just the right balance between the silly and the darkly thought-provoking.
Details
Through July 13 at 1950 Silver Creek Road, Fort Worth. $15-$25. hippocket.org.
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