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Buy a 2017 SEASON
CAST OF THE EXPLORER’S CLUB
December 1–23
Boys Will Be
Boys
GENTLEMEN SCIENTISTS GATHER IN VLT’S
COMIC ROMP THE EXPLORER’S CLUB
BY RACHAEL CARNES
700 Village Drive, Cottage Grove
541-942-8001
www.cottagetheatre.org
University of Oregon Theatre presents
THE EMPEROR
OF THE MOON
by Aphra Behn
Director J.K. Rogers
Hope Theatre - UO Campus
Jan 26 th , 27 th , 28 th at 8pm
Feb 2 nd , 3 rd , 4 th at 8pm
Feb 5 th at 2pm
tickets.uoregon.edu
FREE FOR
UO STUDENTS
L
egend has it that when a team of British archaeologists outfitted themselves to
excavate the tomb of King Tutankhamen, their journey began with an errand to
London’s famed Fortnum & Mason, purveyors of biscuits and tinned meats to the
Queen since 1707.
In fact, the spoils of the archaeologists’ successful journey to the North
African desert were then packed in the now-empty picnic tins and wooden crates they
schlepped to Egypt: untold treasures, millennia-old, brought back to the waiting Empire in
crocks labeled “Potted Stilton” and “Waxed Cheddar Truckle.” (Because, if we’re going
to the colonies, we bloody well better have our cheeses.)
It’s in this daffy, devil-may-care vein that we find Nell Benjamin’s hilarious play The
Explorer’s Club, playing now at Very Little Theatre (VLT).
We’re in London, 1879, in the hallowed halls of a gentleman’s club (the name had a
different meaning back then), a brotherly society dedicated to loose science and hard
drinking.
One of its members, Lucius Fretway (played with exasperated zip by Russell Dyball)
asks his brethren to consider a woman, Phyllida Spotte-Hume (the delightful Martha
Benson) for membership in their exclusive and traditionally all-male society. (Wait:
Hume? As in David Hume, the Scottish philosopher, historian, economist and champion
of skepticism and naturalism? Well-played, cheeky playwright...)
Director Chris McVay plumbs the silly script for plenty of laughs, and his effervescent
cast bubbles over with energy and humor. As a trio of bumbling professors, Don Aday,
Achilles Massahos and Scott Frazier-Maskiell ramp up the conflict throughout this sturdy
farce.
Gentleman-explorer and dimwit Harry Piercy — who could be lifted from the pages of
P.G. Wodehouse — played by Michael Teague, and Luigi, played by Darius Bunce, add to
the visual sight gags and general excitement.
And Bill Campbell, as Sir Bernard Humphries, has a debonair air, masking the
character’s utter vapidity. Was it the Greek philosopher Aristotle who said seeing one
character onstage always a tick or two behind is as delicious as anything one could
possible behold? No? I haven’t cited my sources? Oh well, neither has this ragtag crew of
academic blowhards.
Smaller roles are also top-shelf.
The play’s set — a glorious, multi-level masterpiece designed by Amy Bowman Dunn,
replete with imperial-era tchotchkes and period detailing — feels like a journey to the
stuffy and bizarre Victoria and Albert Museum.
And first-rate costumes by Marie Slatton-Valle, with clever repurposing and original
designs, even elicit giggles in and of themselves.
The Explorer’s Club continues at the Very Little Theatre through Jan. 28. $12-$23, tickets at thevlt.com or 541-344-7751.
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January 19, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com