Somber themes invade a child's world
"Are you cheating on me?" "No." "Pinky swear?" This collision of childishness with adult topics is the method of Noah Haidle's funny, disturbing, cartoony Mr. Marmalade, currently receiving a terrific production by Theatre Exile's pitch-perfect cast. Make-believe games are obvious keys to a child's psyche, and the psyche of 4-year-old Lucy (Amanda Schoonover) is a mess. Her imaginary friend, Mr. Marmalade (Jeb Kreager), is a coke-head workaholic who beats up his personal assistant (Dan Hodge), while her real-life mother (Kristyn Chouiniere) barely glances at her between waitressing and dating.
"Are you cheating on me?" "No." "Pinky swear?" This collision of childishness with adult topics is the method of Noah Haidle's funny, disturbing, cartoony
Mr. Marmalade
, currently receiving a terrific production by Theatre Exile's pitch-perfect cast.
Make-believe games are obvious keys to a child's psyche, and the psyche of 4-year-old Lucy (Amanda Schoonover) is a mess. Her imaginary friend, Mr. Marmalade (Jeb Kreager), is a coke-head workaholic who beats up his personal assistant (Dan Hodge), while her real-life mother (Kristyn Chouiniere) barely glances at her between waitressing and dating.
The slutty babysitter (Charlotte Ford), is all teenage uptalk and sullen flounces until her boyfriend (Matt Pfeiffer) shows up. And when a genuine little kid arrives - the boyfriend's 5-year-old brother, Larry, seemingly the perfect solution - it turns out he has flunked out of preschool because of a suicide attempt.
How much daytime TV, how many overheard adult conversations and how much precocious sexuality would it take to make a little girl imagine a domestic world full of violence and abuse and a briefcase full of porn magazines and sex toys? However implausible, the play - and Schoonover's remarkable performance - convinces us of Lucy's loneliness. Whether Haidle's indictment of the culture, full of trashy, cliché situations, has anything new to tell us is a question; that he has found a surprising way of telling it to us is an answer.
Schoonover's Lucy is full of both wonder and inquisitiveness; she finds a way to sound like a child imitating adults without sounding like an adult actress imitating a child. As Larry, Robert DaPonte is as convincing, and sweetly boyish. Neither is cute, or worse, too cute.
Jeb Kreager as "Mr. M" plays it absolutely realistically - or at least as realistically as soap-operatic situations require, sliding from business-suited addict to a reformed character Dr. Phil would, temporarily, be proud of.
Director Joe Canuso smartly resists archness in a play in which that could be tempting, and has found a way to move people on and off stage without violating the illusion of an illusion. Both the too-real lighting design (Paul Moffitt) and the nearly eerie sound design (Chris Colucci) create the off-kilter atmosphere crucial to the play.
The production, at Christ Church Neighborhood House, contains charmingly weird touches: Matt Saunders' set design features shoes on the legs of the child's table, and when two chatty plants - a cactus and a sunflower - appear, they have their flowerpots strapped to their backs, ready to sit on. There is a great big crescent moon ("Good night . . .") sporting surtitles announcing the content of each scene.
Mr. Marmalade
provides an odd and oddly enjoyable evening, typical of Theatre Exile's on-the-edge presence on the theater scene.
Mr. Marmalade
Written by Noah Haidle. Directed by Joe Canuso, sets by Matt Saunders, costumes by Millie Hiibel. lighting by Paul Moffitt, sound by Chris Colucci.
Cast:
Kristyn Chouiniere (Sookie), Robert DaPonte (Larry), Dan Hodge (Bradley),
Charlotte Ford (Emily/Sunflower), Jeb Kreager (Mr. Marmalade),
Matt Pfeiffer (George/Cactus), Amanda Schoonover (Lucy).
Playing at:
Christ Church Neighborhood House, 20 N. American St. Through Nov. 25 Tickets: $15-$40. Information: 215-922-4462 or
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