IT’S CALLED THE SUGAR PLUM
Big Time Theatre Company
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The action takes place in the apartment of Wallace Zuckerman, a poor schlep who hauls meat to pay for his education at Northwestern. When we meet him, he’s listening to radio reports and tearing out newspaper clippings about the man he killed with his car. He is fascinated with the deceased, as if this horrible event has somehow given his life meaning.
Joanna Dibble, the fiance of the deceased, enters Wallace’s apartment thirsting for revenge. She attacks him, chasing and kicking him around his apartment, one moment exploding with rage and the next dissolving into tears. Joanna, at first wild and savage, reveals herself to be something of a lost soul, a tortured artist who’s trying to find meaning in her life through art and through the men she meets.
I can’t think of a worse situation in which to perform an improv show than the unheated, cavernous Calo Theatre before an audience of ten, including the pianist, the lighting guy, two youngsters, and a humorless critic. But somehow Big Time Theatre’s Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman managed to go on.
