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closeSunday, Dec. 07, 2008
'Fruitcakes’ has lots of nuts and plenty of corn
Theatre Arlington's latest may be the warmest and funniest greeting you receive this winter.
By PUNCH SHAW
Special to DFW.com
ARLINGTON — The homemade Christmas card Theatre Arlington has made for us is a bit ragged around the edges, seems to have come from another era and carries a cliched sentiment.
But Fruitcakes, the theater’s offering for the season, may well be the warmest — and funniest — greeting you receive this winter.
This comedy with candied fruits and assorted nuts (emphasis on the latter), takes us to McCord’s Ferry, a Southern town so wholesome it makes Mayberry look like Detroit. The public order is deeply disturbed just before Christmas, however, by a runaway teen (Carson Ingle) who filches one of the bricklike fruitcakes that are made every year, despite popular demand, by bickering sisters Alice (Shirley Orr) and Sarah (Vandi Clark).
The battle to reclaim the town’s calm from the clutches of chaos is complicated by the preparations for a children’s Christmas pageant ravaged by a chickenpox epidemic (yes, the story is that dated) and difficulties with keeping the inharmonious sisters’ fruitcake operation working.
The ringmaster for this cornpone circus is Mack Morgan (ably acted by Burl Proctor), who runs a sort of general store and repair shop that is a crossroads for all of the town’s eccentrics. These splashes of local color include Skeeter (Tyler Cochran), who uses poetry to help him with his angling: He has found that reciting T.S. Eliot usually causes fish to die of boredom and float to the surface.
But what happens in Fruitcakes is of little consequence. One of the challenges in enjoying this sweet, family show is pretending that you don’t see the ending coming within seconds of sitting down.
The characters are all that matter here, and there are some good ones. Bradford Hutson wears his badge well as Beebo Dantzler, a country lawman who is just a bullet or two more responsible than Barney Fife. Orr and Clark, as the warring siblings united only by a fruitcake recipe, play off each other well.
The presentation also benefits from well-paced direction from BJ Cleveland, a fine lighting design by Ana F. Pettit and Jack Hardaway’s nicely appointed sets.
So there are plenty of shortcomings in the script, and the overall quality of the acting is, with just a few exceptions, what should be expected with a completely amateur cast.
But the whole silly business so unabashedly embraces its Leave It To Beaver-like corniness that you can’t help but forgive these flaws and enjoy the cinnamon-dusted taste of its heartfelt Christmas cheer.
Theatre Arlington, 305 W. Main St., Arlington
7:30 p.m. Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays; 5:30 p.m. Sundays
$10-$15
817-275-7661; www.theatrearlington.org
Runtime: 2 hours, with one 15-minute intermission
Be advised: Family friendly.
Best reason to go: The humor and earnestness of the production.
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