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Luckily, plays are sharing the bill

Three works with a Florida theme take the stage, but only one of them clicks.

By MARTY CLEAR
Published February 16, 2005

SARASOTA - Emotionally stilted poets, reptile-obsessed husbands, gleefully evil developers and mosquitoes the size of a grown human.

They're all part of the vision of Florida presented at the Murray Studio Theater at Ruth Eckerd Hall through this weekend.

Eckerd Theater Company and LiveArts Peninsula Foundation have put together a collection of three new one-act plays with a Florida theme and from playwrights with a Florida connection.

The plays, touted by LiveArts as "world premieres" (accurate but a bit pretentious), are David F. Smith's Wallace Stevens at Key West , Doug Cooney's Live Alligator Wrestling and Jeff Whipple's The Cutting Edge of Amenities . They're billed as "The Floridians 2005," part of LiveArts' occasional series of Florida-influenced work.

Only one of the pieces works.

Cooney is an immensely charming and insightful writer and performer whose works combine quirky, low-key comedy and subtle poignancy. Live Alligator Wrestling , based on the story of Owen and Pearl Godwin, the founders of Orlando's Gatorland, doesn't have the emotional depth of some of his best work, but it's still clever, amusing and quietly poignant.

Cooney gives us the Godwins (played wonderfully by Pete Bauer and Susan Alexander) from early adulthood into middle age. Owen Godwin surprises his young wife by turning their back yard into an alligator pit, the beginning of Gatorland. She is not amused. But Florida is crawling with gators and tourists, he argues, so it makes sense to bring the two together.

As a devoted wife, Pearl dutifully runs the attraction while her husband travels the country acquiring exotic animals. In the end, Owen seems to know more about alligators than his wife and reacts awkwardly to her plea for warmblooded companionship.

The story gets a big charge from three local theater talents whose work hasn't been seen much on professional stages of late. Alexander and Bauer show a real fondness for their characters, and director Roz Potenza displays a nice touch with the delicate material.

The first and last pieces in the evening aren't bad, but they're problematic.

Wallace Stevens at Key West has the renowned poet on his annual Florida vacation dealing with a mysterious African-American woman.

Playwright Smith apparently wants to intrigue us by leaving the nature of the relationship vague, but instead he confuses us. Ambiguity can be fun, but in this play it's frustrating, especially coupled with its one-dimensional characters and the lack of any emotional dynamic in the writing and performances.

In The Cutting Edge of Amenities , Whipple offers a shrill extended skit about a slimy, nature-hating developer touring a project site. It's hardly new, the idea that developers destroy nature, and Whipple dwells on it interminably. Then he progresses to a bizarre plot about a huge talking mosquito, and from there he goes into utter nonsense in which a real estate agent transforms into some kind of Amazonian warrior and sings song parodies.

Despite a funny moment or two, it's too heavy-handed and awkward to have any impact.

The Cooney piece makes the evening worthwhile, though, more than compensating for the other two.

[Last modified February 16, 2005, 01:27:16]