Laughing and crying with 'The Boys Next Door'

Though he can't recite the alphabet, Lucien Smith (Roman Smith) has checked out a full set of Department of Agriculture yearbooks with his new library card. His repeated threat to move to Russia represents just one of the obsessions and compulsions the frantic Arnold Wiggins (Frank Zito) suffers from. Adolescent-minded Norman Bulansky (Mike Culbertson) has gained 17 pounds since starting work in a donut shop three months ago. Barry Klemper (Dan Graul) is sad, smart and schizophrenic and claims to be a golf pro. His price of $1.13 per lesson is only one reason success eludes him.

A frazzled social worker named Jack (Derek McCarty) supervises the frenetic group apartment these four mentally disabled men share. Their escapades are both frustrating and endearing to him. At the weekly dance they attend at the center for people like themselves, Jack says, "I can never decide if it's the saddest place I've ever been or the happiest."

"The Boys Next Door," the sparkling first production of the new University Theatre season, will give audiences reason both to laugh and to cry. It opens today at the Rose Theatre and continues nightly at 8 through Saturday. A matinee will be presented at 2 p.m. Sunday. Parents are warned that the fast-paced dialogue includes a number of profanities.

Series of sketches

The two-act play is actually a series of sketches that illuminate the lives of each of the main characters. Most of the action takes place in the living room and kitchen of the apartment the men share, while forestage vignettes at dances, the state Senate, a golf course and a movie theater are imaginatively suggested by set designer Dennis C. Seyer and lighting designer C. Kenneth Cole.

Director Dr. Robert Dillon Jr.'s play has an artful rhythm, as when Norman and Sheila (Crystal Meaux) dance into the wings to usher in the next sketch.

For the most part, these characters are not caricatures. Dillon intentionally had his actors and actresses do little research about what is "wrong" with the people they portray. "We tried desperately to avoid stereotypes," he says.

Norman likes Sheila, who likes him, too. She also is fond of the keys that hang from his belt. The dance Norman and Sheila share at the end of Act I is a stunningly beautiful and touching scene. Culbertson and Meaux are extraordinarily good together.

All the actors shine, especially Smith as the child-like Lucien. His is perhaps the most difficult role because Lucien is so obviously disabled and so insistent that "I mean business."

Rhonda Weller-Stilson's costumes are smart, from Norman's ungainly ties to Barry's pretend golf pro get-ups.

Tim Nicolai plays Barry's corrosive father with great authority. Bart Elfrink and Becky Wolverton play three smaller roles each, all nicely done.

The play loses some momentum in the second act but powerfully makes the point that "the boys next door" are not that different from any of us.

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182