A co-production with Stage West in Fort Worth, WaterTower Theater's staging of Nell Benjamin's farce, The Explorers Club, is their best in many years. As you enter the house you are transported to Victorian England via the best set I've seen on any stage. One immediately notes the suit of armor on a pedestal stage right and the large circular bar stage left in front of a stained-glass window on a set by architect/set designer Clare Floyd Devries. The Club boasts dark-paneled walls, large leather chairs, and mounted animal heads and other accoutrements one would expect to see in an explorers club. The back wall is dominated by a bookshelf containing a few books and framed photographs and a plethora of tchotchkes.
The Explorers Club is for men only. Thus, when anthropologist Phyllida Spotte-Hume (Dana Schultes) is proposed for membership by her ardent admirer Lucius Fretway (John-Michael Marrs), a heated discussion ensues. Phyllida is an intrepid explorer just returned from the lost city of Pahatlabong where she studied the native Nokong tribe. She has rescued and brought back the lone survivor of the now-extinct Pahatlabong, a feral native whom she has dubbed Luigi (Michael Ulmer). He sports bright blue body paint topped off with a Mohawk hair-do. He grunts an unintelligible tribal language and has not quite transitioned to walking upright.
Other club members include archeologist/theologian Professor Sloan (Michael Corolla). His translation of the Old Testament concludes that the 12 lost tribes of Israel settled in Ireland and, therefore, all the Irish are Jews. When he relayed this information in a speech to the Irish Society and told them they were all Jewish and needed to resettle in Palestine, he was attacked and barely escaped with his life. Later in the play he is sought out by an Irish assassin (Kyle Igneczi).
Professor Walling (Mark Shum) is studying a ferret whom he has named Jane and elevated to the role of a beloved pet whom he carries around in a cage. His colleague and fellow club member Professor Cope (Aaron Roberts) is a herpetologist who is equally fond of his subject, a large pet snake he has affectionately named Rosie. And of course, it's no spoiler to figure out Jane's fate when she learns to unlatch her cage to go exploring. Fellow explorer Sir Harry Percy (Thomas Ward) arrives from his expedition to the "East Pole" to announce that not only has he misplaced one of the members of his expedition, one Beebe (Kyle Igneczi), but the British are planning to attack Pahatlabong (if they can find out where it is) because Luigi has slapped their queen. It seems this is a Nakong form of friendly greeting. Harry is sporting a naval officers uniform; he explains it is his costume from a production of H.M.S. Pinafore, as he launches into a refrain from this Gilbert & Sullivan operetta.
The bartender has disappeared and, in a bit of quick thinking, Luigi is quickly dressed in a jacket to cover his upper torso and ensconced behind the bar. Several club members miraculously locate two dictionaries, one translating Pahatlabong to English and vice versa. They teach Luigi a few appropriate phrases, and what happens next is some of the cleverest staging anywhere, as Luigi serves drinks to the members and visitors. Gives a whole new meaning to Singapore Sling.
By now Beebe has found his way back home, and the Irish assassin (Kyle Igneczi) has arrived looking for professor Sloane. Also making her late entrance is Phyllida's sister, the Countess Glamorgan (Dana Schultes) to excoriate the club members for their chauvinistic ways.
The entire cast is superb, and Schultes is outstanding. Jim Covault's direction is flawless, and Ipaye's direction of the scenes at the bar are ingenious and executed with precision by Ulmer and the other cast members as the drinks are "served."
The Explorers Club is a must see with one caveat: On two occasions the club members make a big production of enjoying their "cigars and brandy." If a play contains smoking, the theater should announce this in their brochures, press releases, and ads, so patrons can be forewarned. Also, the theater should post notices at the box office. A preferable alternative would be to just pretend to smoke.
