Metropolitan Playhouse
Virtual Playhouse
Presents
A Screened Reading
of
NOT SMART
Written by WILBUR DANIEL STEELE
Directed & Designed by MARK HARBORTH
Featuring
VICTORIA BUNDONIS, RYAN HALSAVER, CLARA
KUNDIN,
MARIA SILVERMAN, & MATTHEW TRUMBULL
Talkback with JEFFERY KENNEDY, Professor of Arts and Cultural Studies at Arizona State University, & author of the upcoming book “Staging America: The Artistic Legacy of The Provincetown Players”
www.metropolitanplayhose.org/virtualplayhouse
March 6, 2021, 8 p.m.
Ah, Fannie and Milo are such a progressive couple. Traditional marriage is too Victorian for them. Marriage should be “free” and “open”. They tut-tut the provincials in the small town where they are vacationing. Milo blathers on about the subject. He’s not terribly articulate, but he certainly is verbal.
The two discuss their neighbor, Mrs. Painter. Her husband seems to have disappeared. She soon arrives at their door, weeping. Mort has “wandered off”. She is older than Fannie and Milo, with that sad old belief that a husband and wife should remain together. She also gossips about a local girl who was not smart and was sent away for several months. “Not smart”? You know, she whispers. Expecting. She was a maid for someone summering there. Scandal. They sigh at her antiquated morals.
But guess what? Their maid, young Maddy, casually mentions that she’s not smart, then leaves the room to go about her duties. Angry glare from Fannie. Shocked stare from Milo. He denies everything. Fannie skewers him by repeating his previous speech about being “modern”. When Maddy says her old man knows and his coming for her, it’s panic time. The locals, tough laboring men, do not take kindly to such things. Flutter-flutter-flutter. What to do?
This farce perfectly skewers the “moderns” of the time and their affected arrogance. A culture clash from 1916, the satire also mocks some of the author’s personal friends. Clever writing and great acting in this production. A special cheer to VICTORIA BUNDONIS and her spot-on portrayal of the comically overwrought Mrs. Painter.
-Karen D’Onofrio-