Walking Shadow is a small theater company. So the credits for not only a "Blood Designer" but two "Blood Assistants" in the program for "The Coward" raised an eyebrow.
Indeed, there will be blood in this finicky comedy, but it has more in common with a "Saturday Night Live" sketch than a Wes Craven film — an absurd spoof of the idea that shooting someone represents virile honor. Playwright Nick Jones (TV's "Orange Is the New Black") dresses his satire of the once-fashionable practice of dueling in the foppish trappings of 18th-century Britain.
A boorish, prominent member of society is incensed that his son Lucidus quailed when another man called his horse fat. Future acts of effrontery must be met with the challenge of a duel, the father states. Lucidus responds obediently and when an old man gives him the stink eye, the game is on.
Jones dots his dialogue with profanity and the odd anachronism so the effect of the play is an artificial universe in which old customs stand in for modern memes of revenge and glory.
"The Coward" could be a sharp stiletto at 75 minutes. Instead, two hours of lurching and fumbling finally gets us to that deliciously bloody duel. Actor Suzie Juul couldn't keep a straight face on opening night, daubed with more blood than "Carrie" on prom night.
Director Amy Rummenie has cast her actors cross-gender. It's a fai choice, but it largely has the effect of confusion. Is Rummenie perhaps suggesting that women are just as capable of summoning up enough stupid testosterone to settle scores with a gun? Maybe, but Jones' satire of masculinity — the one thing the play has going for it — loses a bit of its sting. Briana Patnode's Lucidus never strikes us as mannish or even distinctive in any way. Only Jean Wolff as the fatuous and blood-happy father, and Linda Sue Anderson, as a doddering but sly old servant, feel full as characters.
Actor Chase Burns, who crosses over to play Isabelle, quite steals the show with his ridiculous performance. He turns what had been a straight-ahead comedy into an absurd farce, which seems to be the direction Rummenie wanted to take this entire enterprise.
Too much, though, lands as tiresome gruel. So thank you, Tyler Olsen of RawRedMeat Productions and your assistants for turning on the hemoglobin. Just wish we could have gotten there sooner.
The Coward
When: 7:30 p.m. Thu.-Sat. through Feb. 28, plus 3 p.m. Feb. 22 and 7:30 p.m. Feb. 25.
Where: Red Eye, 15 W. 15th St., Mpls.
Tickets: $10-$30. 612-375-0300 or www. walking-shadowcompany.org.
