Twenty-one people filed into to Broom Street Theatre Saturday night to see Proper Dreams, the first part of Matthew Grzybowski's three-part sitcom-style theatrical series.
Of the 21 attendees, it's hard to say how many of them really enjoyed the show. Or rather, how many of them, if \Proper Dreams"" were a real television sitcom, would stay tuned or change the channel?
""Proper Dreams"" is staged as theatre in the round and is meant to be a comical look at the lives of two broke roommates, Lewis Tiggles (William Bolz) and Bruce Edward Hun (Alan Hart). ""Proper Dreams"" is all slapstick and ridiculous humor, which is not surprising given the antics of the plot line. The one-hour run time goes through various bizarre schemes that involve everything from being whipped by a limp noodle while tied to a gigantic grapefruit to reinstating the Whig Party; from having a man wear a sun dress to a tea party to using a vacuum to suck a nightmare from a brain.
In ""Proper Dreams,"" given the outrageous characters and plot line, the action in scenes is at such an extremely shocking, ridiculous or stupid level that it becomes funny. ""Proper Dreams"" is a mixture of ""Seinfeld"" gone completely awry, the novelties of the grunge lifestyle and ""Beavis and Butthead"" crudeness.
The actors in ""Proper Dreams"" are appropriately matched to their parts, but they don't necessarily add or detract from the show. ""Dreams"" is not the standard type of theatrical performance where it is possible to dislike the show as a whole, but love a certain actor or actress in the production. A person who sees it either loves the plot line and acting of the show or hates the plot line and acting of the show.
""Proper Dreams"" is definitely not for people who do not enjoy ridiculous, outrageous, slapstick, stupid humor. For people who are not naturally attracted to that type of humor, it is like a theatrical version of Urban Outfitters' book Get Stoned and Read this Book. In order to find that book funny, people need something to make it funny; in that particular case it's marijuana.
""Proper Dreams"" operates on the same premise. For people who don't like humor completely void of ingenuity and cleverness, in order to find the show funny they are going to need something to make it funny.
Or, those kinds of people could just not go see the show. However, even for those kinds of people, it's almost worth going to see the show just to see how much ridiculous, outrageous, slapstick and stupid humor it takes to exceed your threshold.
