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The Austin Chronicle
By Staff Reviewer |
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I do believe that Mr. Sears and Mr. Williams have at last got the hang of this Tuna thing. These gentlemen have been working on this show -- detailing a day in the life of the third-smallest town in Texas -- for more than a dozen years, and it's comforing to see that after that much time, they know all their lines and when and where to move onstage. They also know how to make a thousand people erupt in laughter with the slightest tip of a head or glance backward or a yawn or a grunt or by drawing out a three-letter word into a multisyllabic mile of dirt road. Though I doubt it will come as a surprise to anyone who knows the work of Williams and Sears, Greater Tuna is as funny as ever and their performances in it are as farm fresh and chicken fried crisp as when it was new. If anything. their work today shows these two continuing to grow as individual actors and as a team. So many of Williams' comedic choices have bocome bolder -- the arched-back, cattiness of Vere Carp, the high whines of the Bumiller children, mewing like, country calicos - while those of Sears have grown subtler - Bertha Bumlller's feud with her son's mongrels, Aunt Pearl's gloating over the body of the deceased Judge, played with delicacy and finesse. Yet the two styles are never at odds; they complement each other: one sugar, one salt, both so flavorful that you can't do without either. You laugh at the one, then turn to laugh at the other. And these men are so adept at keeping you laughing that it's easy to sit through the show and miss what makes it so enduring. The actors do draw and quarter the small-mindedness of small-town residents, but they don't reduce their targets to cardboard. Sears and Williams keep their characters human and portray their conflicts and pain with depth. And when the folks in Tuna pray - and for the first time, I really noticed how much these characters pray - the actors treat their faith with respect and generosity. These gentlemen have sald that they plan to retire this piece after they record it for posterity later this month,and it's hard to blame them. They have kept at it a good long time, and they still have the work of A Tuna Christmas and a new Tuna show to keep them busy. Still, I'm happy I got to see it one last time and to see its creators' perform it wlth the style, the joy, the grace, with which they performed when it was new. This is a testament to two remarkable actors, to masters of laughter, and to the home in the heart of us all, a home of quaint, loud, ridiculous, dear people - our kith and kln, us - a home they named Tuna. FINAL WEEKEND! Performances run through May 22, Thu-Sat, 8pm, Sat & Sun, 2pm, and Sun, 7:30pm, at the Paramount Theatre.
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