The stage is bare, save for a nine-by-twelve-foot white screen. The house lights dim. We hear an ancient film projector grinding away. We see the film leader: five, four, three, two, and then the film title, "all wear bowlers," staring Earnest Matters (Geoff Sobelle) and Wyatt R. Levine (Trey Lyford). The two are dressed in black, wearing bowlers. They are in a bleak landscape walking and walking and walking, finally getting closer to us. The scratchy film, with occasional subtitles, grinds on.
The stage lights come up a bit. The magic of cinema and theater become one as the two leave the screen, peer about, and return to the screen. This marriage of media goes on for quite a time. They fear the audience, retreating to the silver screen, only to return to the stage as curiosity overtakes fear. Finally, the film sticks in the projector, burns out and the actors are forced to deal with the live audience.
So begins one of our most hilarious evenings at La Jolla Playhouse. all wear bowlers, while combining film and live theater, is a performance piece. Obviously Sobelle and Lyford have seen way too many films of Laurel and Hardy, Chaplin, Abbott and Costello, The Keystone Kops, just to name a few.
The audience also becomes part of the act. The duo climb over people, going up a few rows to greet us. They remove two of the chairs from the front row, taking them to sit on, on stage, while the two audience members sit on the floor. Their manner of speaking is an exaggerated library whisper much of the time.
The slapstick routines flow seamlessly on. There is the endless egg routine, seen even today in some amateur magic acts. They seem constantly fascinated with the audience, they fight over a newspaper, the stage goes black, and they go on. Their live ventriloquist segment has been a mainstay of slapstick since the twenties. Even artist Rene Magritte is paid homage when they mime his bowler and apple painting.
James Sugg's sound design is excellent, at times underscoring their actions and often creating the sound to motivate a new routine. The integration of Michael Glass' film with the live action is visually startling. all wear bowlers is guaranteed tickle your funny bone. "I'm not a fan of slapstick, but this was hilarious."
