LIKE LIFE
The common element in Terry Breen’s The Extraordinary Mr. Ordinary and Tom Wawzenek’s Grandma’s Funeral is a man trying to make order, if not sense, out of life, and in the process making life hellish for everyone else. Breen’s Mr. Ordinary and Wawzenek’s Frankie Biezychudek are average Joes trying to keep their worlds functioning. Mr. Ordinary does so by staying home; he’s literally an armchair philosopher who sits and dictates his thoughts into a tape recorder. A dropout from the corporate rat race, he’s a good friend to Stu Simply, the yuppie efficiency expert who drops in on him now and then, and a faithful lover to Brenda, the bargain-store checkout girl he meets while shopping for toilet paper. Good and faithful, that is, on his own flaky, self-absorbed terms; though he means no harm, he’s apt to leave Stu trapped in his bathroom while he courts Brenda, or to forget about Brenda while he and Stu literally go Nowhere–and find it a tourist trap. But when he comes back, he’s willing, even eager, to show Brenda the slides he took. Whatta guy!
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The two ensembles in this pair of plays acquit themselves competently and entertainingly; David Bodin, an old pro long absent from the Chicago stage, is fascinating as the stubborn, self-justifying Frankie. Firmly rooted in reality, Bodin’s revelation of the sources of his character’s contrary behavior is both funny and moving, so that one is at once embarrassed to laugh and unable not to laugh at his hilarious story.
