Aug 24, 2007

Mime Troupe brings government intelligence to comedic low with "Making a Killing"

By John Angell Grant / Theater Columnist

American investigative reporting in Iraq has just been outsourced to India. At least that's the story in "Making a Killing," the San Francisco Mime Troupe's hilarious new summer musical production now touring Bay Area parks.

The Mime Troupe performs this play on the Peninsula next Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in Mitchell Park, in Palo Alto.

"Making a Killing" is a musical comedy about the inability of the American news media to report the truth about what is going on in Iraq. I think it's the best Mime Troupe show I've ever seen.

The meandering story, filled with twists and turns, opens during a stateside military trial in which one American G.I. stationed in Iraq is accused of murdering another. The trial testimony then unfolds in flashbacks to Iraq.

In the flashbacks, two gay G.I. reporters pal around Iraq, hired to do feel-good puff pieces for the Army newspaper. Back in Washington, because unpopular Dick Cheney is losing corporate board influence, the Vice President opts to sponsor an Iraqi children's cancer clinic.

The two gay soldiers are assigned to write a puff piece about the cancer clinic. A complicated tangle emerges.

"Making a Killing" is a complex, witty and fast-paced show, loaded with short quick scenes and sudden turning points. It is well written by Michael Gene Sullivan and Jon Brooks.

Co-directors Sullivan and Ellen Callas give their actors lots of good comic opportunities, and the players do well with them, hopping around the stage like dancing martinets in broad performances.

Six actors create more than two dozen characters. Ed Holmes is fabulous as Dick Cheney, a part he's played before with the Mime Troupe. This Cheney's Secret Service codename is "the Burger."

When the audience boos Cheney, he gives them the finger. One of the items on the Vice President's to-do list is to facilitate the purchase of Arizona by China.

With the talented Velina Brown playing Condoleezza Rice, the two do several funny scenes about foiled meetings with Exxon, Lockheed Martin and Halliburton. Cheney repeatedly falls into a coma during which Condi has to use a stun gun him.

Pat Moran has written great songs for the show, and plays a terrific guitar as part of the Mime Troupe band. In a secondary role as USO entertainer Fantasy O'Doul, the versatile Velina Brown sings such future classic Mime Troupe lyrics as "It's my duty to shake this booty."

"Making a Killing" is a play about the ways in which ordinary citizens find it easier and simpler to just knuckle under to the government's official explanation of a political situation, rather than looking at whether it's the truth or not.

Specifically, the show looks at the public relations and mind-control levels that the Iraq war is currently being fought on, and how that deception hurts America and the world.

Asks one Iraqi of the politically brain-dead Americans, "If the Internet is so informative, then why are you so stupid?" In this play it turns out that it's the Iraqis who want the truth.

This is one of the most enjoyable Mime Troupe shows ever. Don't miss it.

Rating: Four stars


E-mail John Angell Grant at jagplays@dailynewsgroup.com.