The Alchemist’s latest offering features seven one-acts by Milwaukee comedy gurus Jason Powell and Doug Jarecki written for Bunny Gumbo’s Combat Theatre and Patrick Schmitz Presents Sketch 22. Each script was based on a randomly paired setting and subject and was written (and originally staged) in just 22-24 hours. For this production, the actors had a normal rehearsal period, but the spontaneity of the works’ genesis carries through.
Powell and Jarecki—who also perform, under Katie Cummings’ direction—open the show with an amusing co-musing about their own curtain speech. After a lot of “I said, then you said” patter, they burst into “Destiny, Deviltry & Dentistry”—the catchy title ditty, which audiences will internalize by show’s end. The line “Surrender to the idiocy!” stands out as an apt instruction. The comedy on view here is pure, well-executed silliness.
On their spare, transformable set, all 10 ensemble members deliver strong performances in multiple roles. Standouts include Mitch Weindorf as various comically murdered characters in “Rye Spy” and “Mutiny On The Root Canal” (the night’s smashing closer). Andi Jaspersen is charmingly sincere as a woman willing to break a 100-year pirate curse by ramming a gold molar into her own mouth in “Mutiny.” Powell and Jarecki both shine in this piece too as hapless pirates. Lindsey Gagliano delights even in less well-written sketches, her trademark smirk livening roles ranging from lovelorn dental assistant to hunchbacked gypsy.
“Keep It In The Family,” perhaps the cleverest sketch of the evening, features Jarecki as over-eager father, Brittany Boeche as kinky sex worker-mother and April Paul as secretive daughter in a family comedy set in Amsterdam. You know the talk so many parents have with their teens when they discover they’re using recreational drugs? Well, flip the perspectives and hilarity ensues.
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While not every sketch is a triumph, there are more than enough laughs on hand to make this showcase a success.
Destiny, Deviltry & Dentistry runs through Sept. 20 at The Alchemist Theatre, 2569 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. For tickets, visit alchemisttheatre.com.
