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The Times Herald

October 15, 1999

by Gary Puleo

for The Times Herald

Part social satire, part "Carol Burnett Show" skit, Neil Simon's "Rumors" is long on the kind of crackle designed to keep an audience snapping back with laughter.

The decade-old play may not be one of Simon's most cohesive efforts, but it is surely among his most riotously caffeinated and easily digestible, particularly in the increasingly efficient hands of the Methacton Community Theater.

Simon’s comic timing is a kind of Zen vaudeville experience, and even though we know another joke is never more than a sentence away, we find our responses are frequently tinged with surprise anyway.

"Rumors" briskly directed by Jeannette Patey, is a circling circus of contingencies: Charlie shoots himself through the earlobe. Cookie cuts herself with a broken water pitcher. Ken deafens himself with a misfired pistol. Cassie flushes her New Age crystal down the toilet. Ernie burns his hands on a hot pot. Len twists his neck in a car accident. Chris trips over the phone cord and lands on her face.

These are just a few of the major and minor mishaps, and they all occur long before act two is even a glimmer in Simon’s eye.

The convoluted plot involves four couples who gather to celebrate a 10^th wedding anniversary of their best friends only to discover an attempted suicide – or is it?

A missing wife, missing cook, a damaged car, whip lash, a reoccurring back spasm and, of course, a frenzy of rumors add to the raging havoc that defines the plot.

The play is set in New York City in the present at the home of Charlie, the deputy mayor of New York, and Myra Brock. The first couple to arrive at the alleged party is Ken and Chris Gorman, played by Barbara Simon-Reale and Bob Patey. Upon arrival, the Gormans discover that Charlie has been seriously injured by a self-inflicted gunshot and Myra is missing, as are the servants. No one had even exhibited the far-sightedness to prepare a tray of crudités.

Other guests will soon be arriving, so the Gormans must fabricate a story to explain the missing anniversary couple and servants. They tell varied stories to different guests and ultimately become confused as to who knows what, hence the play’s title.

Simon-Reale ably sets the level of neurotic panic, and the rest of the cast quickly follows. Patey effectively shows how his character’s racing thoughts can explore all of the possible angles that might happen if anyone should find out the truth, whatever that truth may be.

Jay Farrelly, as Lenny Ganz, yet another lawyer friend of the vanishing host, keeps his whiplash of a characterization barely in check as he careens into the web of activities.

Ken Brown, as Ernie Cusack, the psychiatrist, discerningly pulls off all the attributes of an analyst that might indicate that he had gone into practice because he deeply needed analysis himself.

Pete Gonzalez, as Glenn Cooper, the reserved politician running for State Senate, provides much-appreciated contrast of composure s he attempts to soft-pedal the surrounding lunacy. His meticulously-reasoned explanations to his wife’s accusations of infidelity – a sub-plot of adultery figures into the chaos – offers one of the evening’s few opportunities for the story to self-assess developments without the threat of laughter drowning out the dialogue.

Marita Taglialatela, as Cooper’s wife Cassie, turns in a nicely intense study of self-absorption.

Methacton Community Theater presents Neil Simon’s "Rumors" at 8 p.m. tonight and Saturday at the Trappe Building (former Perkiomen Valley Middle School), 29 First Avenue, Trappe. Tickets: $8, $4 for children 11 and under. Information: (610) 489-6449.