Chemically Imbalanced Comedy's Blog

2/13/2008 10:00:00 PM  Email this article • Print this article 

If you go … The Book of Liz n Chemically Imbalanced Theater, 1420 West Irving Park Road n Runs through March 29 n Tickets: $12-$18

Mastering the cheeseball
North side theater runs David and Amy Sedaris play

By PHIL MOREHART, Contributing Writer
Theater review
Wundersiblings Amy and David Sedaris are behind some of today’s most challenging, innovative comedy. From the absurd, near surreal antics of Amy’s late television spoof, Strangers with Candy, to David’s bitingly funny essays, radio work and short story collections, they consistently spear notions of what comedy is and what it can be. Their collaborative stage play, The Book of Liz-currently in production at Chemically Imbalanced Comedy-is no different.

The play centers on Sister Elizabeth Donderstock of Clusterhaven, a cloistered, conservative, God-fearing religious community populated by the Squeamish (think the Amish-but kooky). Sister Elizabeth has a bit of a sweating problem. She also makes cheeseballs. And she’s damn good at it. So much so, that the delicacy is Clusterhaven’s chief export, providing the community’s sole economic sustenance.

Despite her talents, the well-intentioned Elizabeth is trampled upon by the forces-that-be in Clusterhaven. This culminates when her cheeseball-making duties are stripped and given to a new Brother who has connived his way into the flock. Feeling dejected, betrayed and alone, Sister Elizabeth does the unthinkable-she leaves Clusterhaven to try her hand at the modern outside world. The move opens her up to a magnitude of change, tests her resolve as a religious person, and throws Clusterhaven into a tizzy when they unsuccessfully try to replicate her cheeseball mastery.

The satire runs deep in The Book of Liz, with all manners of convention getting the skewer-religion, ethnic stereotypes, homosexuality and more. That it’s wrapped up in a farce complete with scatological gags, odd non-sequiturs and broad, near vaudevillian exaggerations makes it all the more enjoyable. And true to much of the Sedaris’ works, revelations about human nature and the fragility of the family dynamic run beneath-a sweet subversion that adds bright poignancy.

Though The Book of Liz’s words are its pedigree, they are only as strong as the players giving it life. Luckily, Chemically Imbalanced Comedy has that covered in spades.

This is the company’s second mounting of the play after a successful fall 2007 run, and it shows. The ensemble is strong and they project a real comfort with the material-no small task considering its physical intensity, verbal interplay and the fact that much of the cast takes on multiple roles.

Sarah Rose Graber is superb as Sister Elizabeth Dunderstock. She carries the show easily with a natural, doe-eyed, innocent charm and a voice of endearing, goofy inflection. Her performance is infectious, pulling the audience along with such strength that a genuine connection develops. Though we laugh at her naiveté, we also empathize with it and finally cheer its triumphs.

Brian Kash, as Brother Brightbee, the interloper who swoops into Clusterhaven with an agenda and swipes Sister Elizabeth’s place in the community, delivers one of the show’s funniest performances. Kash is a natural comedian; a compact, physical actor with a putty face who charts Brightbee’s transformation from despicable to pathetic with a multitude of preens, struts, screams and William Shatner-inspired dirges.

Also of note is supporting player Chris Froseth, who impressively tackles the challenge of three very different roles-one half of a young, street-wise Ukrainian immigrant couple who takes in Sister Elizabeth, a Clusterhaven Brother of extremely diminished intellectual capacity, and a smug yuppie on the hunt for cheeseballs. Whenever Froseth is onstage, laughter is guaranteed.

Chemically Imbalanced Comedy presents The Book of Liz in their new, black box storefront space on Irving Park Road. The confines are small and cramped, but the intimacy works in the production’s favor. The dialogue and action stay square in the audience’s face-right where the Sedaris’ intended.

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