Outside the Box: Classic TV Live on Stage
Live-action TV offers a fun diversion
** 1/2
By Mark Collins, Camera Theater Critic
October 27, 2006
LAFAYETTE — After bringing episodes of "The Twilight Zone" to life on stage each October for the past several years, Theater Company of Lafayette has changed channels and added a couple other vintage television shows and commercials for our viewing pleasure.
Rod Serling (Ian Gerber) invites us to visit "another dimension" in TCL's "Outside the Box," and while we're there, "My Favorite Martian" and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" are also airing. Before and between shows there are live commercials plugging Rice Krispies, Charmin toilet tissue and Hai Karate after shave.
As you might expect, a quirky "Twilight Zone," a corny "Martian," a chilling "Hitchcock" and some goofy commercials make for an uneven evening of entertainment (hey, it's TV after all). Numerous set changes during and between the episodes sometime slow the momentum, too.
But there's no denying the cast and crew at TCL (some 40 strong in the intimate Mary Miller Theater) are having a ball, and that's contagious.
Each of the TV episodes was originally aired in the early 1960s. In the "Twilight Zone" episode "People Are Alike All Over," Gerber, doing a very good Serling, introduces the earthlings as "a species of flimsy, two legged animals with very small heads. His name is man."
These earthlings, two of them, are astronauts on a mission to Mars. Once there, they discover Martians look very much like earthlings — or at least like ancient Romans dressed for a dinner party.
As with many "Twilight Zone" episodes, this one carries some social commentary with it. It asks us to imagine that we were one of the "lesser" creatures that inhabit Earth.
Obviously, the "My Favorite Martian" episode has a Martian theme as well. Uncle Martin (Dutch Shindler) helps a neighbor girl (Hilary Johnson) with a homework assignment — a paper that argues for the possible existence of intelligent life on Mars, Martin's home planet.
While the actors try and make the most of it, the writing here is pretty weak and doesn't hold up as well as the other two episodes.
The strongest piece in the evening of live TV is surely Hitchcock's "Final Escape," the story of a convict (Alexandria St. Aubin) who devises a brilliant way to break out of prison and flee her long sentence. Hitchcock shows restraint and handles exposition masterfully. He doesn't tell us too much, and so we're drawn in by what's transpiring.
Jared Wilson directs the episode, and sets it in a women's prison instead of a man's prison like the original teleplay. Changing the gender works wonderfully, especially since Wilson keeps things straight instead of going campy with the material.
St. Aubin (as Lena, the main character) and Ellen Ranson (Lena's cellmate) give good performances, and Bill Graham is fun as Hitchcock.
The episode has a great surprise ending, and TCL pulls it off wonderfully.
On opening night, KBCO DJ Bret Saunders played Mr. Whipple in a Charmin commercial to the delight of the audience. Lafayette Mayor Chris Berry takes the role the rest of the run. There are also chances to win Twinkies with some fun pre-show trivia, and the dessert cake finds its way into several other portions of the evening, too.
In fact, for people of a certain Baby Boomer age, the TCL show is a lot like the Hostess treat. You don't want to pack it in your lunch every day, but once in a while it's fun to rip open the plastic wrapper on a Twinkie and remember something from your youth. "Outside the Box" isn't a meaty piece of theater, but it's a fun little diversion.