'Food Chain' Links Laughs, Pathos, Fine Performances
By by RACHEL ZINN, Staff Writer
Excellent performances by Five College students, as well as from our own Amherst seniors Rob O'Hare and Scott Kerns, make the Smith College Theater Department's production of Nicky Silver's "The Food Chain" a tasty treat. While the storyline deals with the rather grim topics of unrequited love and loneliness, frequent laughter from the audience showed appreciation for the performers' skilled delivery of the show's witty dialogue.

The play opens with a conversation between Amanda, a young poet supporting her trendy lifestyle with a hefty inheritance, and Bea, a middle-aged hotline operator with a wicked New York accent.

Bea, played by Smith sophomore Nancy A. Martira, is right out of Mike Myers' "Coffee Talk" skit from "Saturday Night Live." The character is trite, but Martira acts well and eventually reveals some emotional depth.

Smith senior Eliza Baldi gives a solid performance as Amanda. Her character's subtle mocking of the art world (e.g. her old boyfriend got rave reviews for his suicide in a performance art piece) provides clever comic relief.

The first act sometimes gets bogged down in preachy dialogue, especially when Amanda begins discussing oppression by the patriarchy. But humor and good acting carry the scene to a steamy conclusion as Amanda is reunited with her husband (an almost dialogue-less part, played gamely by Kerns) of three weeks who had been missing for two weeks.

The pace picks up in the second act when the audience is introduced to Serge, an "unusually attractive" model, and his pathetic devotee Otto, played by O'Hare. The physical comedy between the lithe Serge and overweight Otto is hilarious, and O'Hare gives a wonderful performance that lights up the stage. He manages to arouse sympathy for the desperate Otto with his endless enthusiasm and dry wit.

The play explores the foolish things we do for love and convincingly illustrates the tendency to base our image of the people we love on our own emotional needs.

The costuming and sets are well done-although Amanda's hideous negligee in the final scene was a bit distracting. The use of props, especially by O'Hare, is excellent. A definite highlight of the show was Otto's gleeful sprinkling of SnoCaps candies across the stage.

The play is a comfortable length at about an hour and a half with no intermission, and it is worth a trip to Northampton. Even in the scattered moments when the writing drags, the fine acting is a pleasure to watch.

Issue 07, Submitted 2000-10-25 00:24:04