theater review: The Odd Couple

I've gone occasionally to the Tabard Theatre, a small company that performs in a rickety old building off San Pedro Square in downtown San Jose, when they're doing something interesting. I enjoyed their all-female 1776 some years ago, and a serious play about an infamous 1930s murder and lynching that occurred right here in town.

This month they're doing Neil Simon's The Odd Couple, which I've seen performed before, so I knew at least the script was good. Going there was a strangely bifurcated experience. San Pedro was hopping: there was a deafening drum kit (sounding like the kind employed by college marching bands, without the band) playing outside the restaurant where I tried to have a quiet dinner, and when I got out at 10 PM the crowds around the bars were seething even though it was only Thursday.

And none of them had a mask on, of course (though it was required in the theater audience). This is how the virus spreads, children. A relevant sight when I was up in the City on Friday (what I was doing there will wait for later) was a man wearing a t-shirt reading "That which doesn't kill you, mutates and tries again." Despite this grim but accurate sentiment, he didn't have a mask.

What made this bifurcated is not just the mask dichotomy but that, despite the crowds outside, the theater was nearly deserted. Maybe they should do fewer performances, as even the small space (would seat maybe 100) had few patrons: there were only 11 people in the audience.

Nevertheless the actors were fully professional and put their all into the performance without becoming frantic about it. I laughed as much as I could (knowing the show meant no real surprises) and clapped and cheered loudly at the end. Looking at it from a review perspective, I really liked the Oscar, a husky fellow who was quick and sarcastic. Felix, though tall and thin and thus physically appropriate for the part, didn't seem to inhabit it quite as much, though Felix's carryings-on (his honkings to blow out his ears, his cries of pain at any physical strain) were well-done. The rest of the cast (the poker players and the Pigeon sisters) were not quite up to the leads' level as part-players, but they were all competent actors, and distinctly individual both in looks and behavior.

It's playing through Sunday matinee, and again next weekend Thursday-Sunday. Locals, why don't you go and give this little neighborhood company a deserved boost?