Performed at Heritage House,
Fort Knox, KY  March, 1988

Trio of one-act plays are bizarre to offbeat 

It's funny.  That's the best way to describe "A Festival of Best One Acts" which opened at A.C.T. last week.  The evening goes from the bizarre story of The Actor's Nightmare to the offbeat fable A Dopey Fairy Tale, to the highly condensed version of a Shakespearean classic The Fifteen-Minute Hamlet.  It's different kinds of comedy, and at least one should fit each theatregoer's taste.
If none of the one-acts please, audiences may be tickled with the preshow concert by local folk entertainer John Dowell, who provides them with a sing-along that is impossible for all but the best memories to follow.  There's also Between The Acts, a skit put on by Bari & B.J. Caricker.  Beware of a little old lady walking through the dining room complaining about the food before the show:  She is almost surely Mrs. Caricker in disguise.
Many of the actors in the one-acts are in more than one.  None of them seem to have any problems keeping up with their characters. Although some may be playing totally different roles, they are believeable in all-which goes to good casting as well as good acting.
Vatican Lokey shines as leads in both The Actor's Nightmare and The Fifteen-Minute Hamlet.  He is George Spelvin in the first.  George finds himself onstage with no memory of his lines.  He doesn't even remember being an actor; he thinks he may work at a car wash.  Lokey looks pitifully lost onstage, just as George is supposed to be.  He elicits several rounds of laughter as he screams for help.
Lokey's supporting actors do well to round out the effect.  Marsha Williams plays the stage manager and looks just as a stage manager should look.  Sara Collier looks like a dramatic actress from days gone by, and she's wonderful as she acts as though she is trying to cover how furious she is with George for forgetting his lines.  B.J. Paris plays another actress, Dame Ellen Terry, and her performance is hilarious.  The Dame and George are playing a couple who live in garbage cans.  Watch closely for Paris' facial expressions; they'll have you laughing until your sides hurt.
The second one-act, A Dopey Fairy Tale, is a turnaround from the first.  It is about a family of bakers who have a talking dog and a son who can instantly imitate anyone he meets.  It's difficult to believe that Mark Hester, who plays the dog, has never been onstage before.  That's what he says, but he is a natural.  Clarence, the boy imitator, is played quite well by Tim Higdon.  A Dopey Fairy Tale is rightly named.  It's very silly, but not ridiculous.
The Fifteen-Minute Hamlet is a neat collection of actors, some playing as many as three, four, and six characters each.  David Behringer-as Shakespeare, Claudius, and Polonius-and Rick Robinson-as Francisco, Osric, Fortinbras the gravedigger, the Ghost, and Horatio-are exceptionally good at making each of their characters look different.
The ACT version of The Fifteen-Minute Hamlet moves quickly and smoothly.  When it's over, audiences may feel like they were run over by a truck.  They're left uninjured but wondering which way it all went.