Fun with radioactivity Fun with radioactivity (June 04, 2004)

Pierre and Marie Curie prove an unlikely subject for a comedy

By Ben Marks

There's a lovely little moment about halfway through the second act of "Pierre and Marie," on stage through June 19 at the Bus Barn Theatre in Los Altos.

In it, Georgette (played to out-size perfection by Glenna DiGiacinto-Murrillo) -- a former waitress who has taken a job as a nanny for Pierre and Marie Curie's newborn infant -- complains loudly that no one ever bothers to ask her opinion when it comes to questions of science.

Rising to the challenge presented by this voluble member of the uneducated masses, Marie (Mary McGloin) delivers a concise and informative explication of the differences between physics and chemistry, pausing only to bemoan her lack of vinegar so she could have demonstrated an actual chemical reaction for poor, simple Georgette. Without skipping a beat, Georgette casually announces that she carries a bottle of vinegar with her wherever she goes (imagine that!), whereupon she retrieves it from her bag and hands it to Marie, who barely blinks before proceeding with her demonstration.

And there, alas, ends the lovely, funny, little moment -- one of only a few in the entire play. DiGiacinto-Murrillo's Georgette clearly gets the silliness that should be at the heart of this alleged comedy, but McGloin's Marie does not. She isn't the least bit taken aback that her nanny is apparently wheeling her child around Paris with a bottle of vinegar on her person. Indeed, she forges ahead with such humorlessness and dispatch that we in the audience find ourselves wondering if perhaps there was something about 1880s Paris that made carrying a bottle of vinegar advisable. We should be laughing but instead we are merely confused.

Humorlessness and dispatch, in fact, are two of this play's biggest problems (besides the often corny, melodramatic writing and the wisdom of crafting a comedy about the discovery of radiation in the first place, but there's nothing we can do about that). Too typically, the actors move hurriedly and joylessly through their scenes, trudging from beat to beat to beat.

The problems begin in the play's first scene when we meet Pierre, who is played earnestly but ultimately not convincingly by Matthew Travisano. As the lights go up, Pierre enters his freezing-cold Sorbonne laboratory.

What follows is supposed to be a tone-setting bit of shtick as the young professor struggles to stay warm. But instead of using his movements to tell us about his character as a Bill Irwin or Charlie Chaplin might have done (sure the comparison is unfair, but the scene demands no less), Travisano appears to have his hands full remembering his stage directions and blocking.

But it is the interpretation of the play that I think ultimately dooms this production. Director Linda Piccone doesn't seem to understand that she has a comedy on her hands. Luis A. Nunez, who plays Bemont, and DiGiacinto-Murrillo understand it very well, which is why their performances bring the play to life whenever they were on stage.

Travisano's Pierre is stiff and decidedly not funny (not a good thing for the lead actor in a comedy). McGloin's Marie, who enters the play a vaguely kinky revolutionary (think Squeaky Fromme with a Polish accent), devolves into a career-obsessed bore. Even the couple's antics as they try to hide a stack of pornography and a small cache of dynamite from their blustery, status-obsessed patron, Chevrier (John Baldwin), lack spark.

I'm sorry, but Marie Curie as 19th-century porn-queen terrorist should be funny. Instead, Marie covers her actions so well from Chevrier that she almost succeeds in hiding the evidence of her extracurricular life from the audience.

Dull is one thing, but if you want to win an audience's heart, it's a good idea to occasionally let them in on your character's secrets.

Information

What: Bus Barn Stage Company presents "Pierre and Marie"

Where: Bus Barn Theatre, 97 Hillview Avenue, Los Altos

When: Through June 19. Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. Sunday, June 6 and 13 at 3 p.m.

Cost: $25; $20 for Sunday matinees

Call: 941-0551 or visit www.busbarn.org

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