Farouk & Tidy Endings

THE TALE OF KING FAROUK
ON TIDY ENDINGS
Theater 53
-fall 2000
I wrote a play for Amanda, Derek, and i, based on a scene from SEXUAL PERVERSITY about King Farouk's habit of re-routing trains to crash through his mistresses' houses while he was making love to them. I turned that into a one-act farcical morality tale about the misuse of power. Derek would play the outrageous Farouk, Amanda would play a bevy of maidens, and i would be Farouk's minister of state and the narrator. For the second act i chose a Harvey Fierstein piece about the aftermath of death. In THE TALE OF KING FAROUK, Derek jaunts about the land, fatally bopping maidens on the head until he meets Amanda's Carly, who outfoxes him and assumes his throne with the assistance of my minister, Lord Potash. Amanda threw wigs on and off to play different maidens (of differing bust sizes) and the exiled Farouk's wife, a woman who knows how to keep her Faroukie in line. On some nights we had a fourth cast member, usually Amanda Farmer, the three year-old sister of an actor in the other one-act. I would hold her in my arms as i delivered the final piece of narration. Sometimes when she wasn't available, i would pick up a child from the audience. Derek was delightfully over-the-top as the cracked king, delivering such lines as "That, my dear, is a choo-choo" with manic gusto. He and his stick horse, Rolfpierre, gaily galloped through the audience. One of Amanda's funnier moments was when she attacks the unconscious Farouk. I fend her off, and she shouts "I'll tear you a new one too, Potash!" I then carry Derek off, as i had carried his maidens earlier, and Amanda gets in one more pop on his head. Stage manager Shane had many fun sound effects, including trains and bopping. Newcomer Donna McDonald, who had co-run a theater in British Columbia, helped with set construction. In the second piece, about a gay man's ex-wife and ex-lover fighting over pieces of a dead man's memory, i reprised the role i had played in college, and cast Sheryl Ruppert, whom i'd met in theater circles but never worked with, as the ex-wife. Her background was in opera. She was wonderful, onstage and off. During auditions, i cried as i read Arthur's lines...but was never again able to cry that easily during the run, needing the onions-in-the-pocket trick to help. I turned Marion's son into a daughter, and double-cast the role. Samantha Farmer, a ten year-old who had been one of the most talented kids from my Bonita summer theater camp, was Jenny #1. Jenny #2 was Tony's thirteen year-old daughter Evelyn. It was her first show, but she did fine, and Tony was so happy. Amanda (P, not F) played Cheryl's lawyer. In only her fifth show, she was coming a long way very quickly. Amanda and Derek worried that audiences mightn't enjoy FAROUK as much as we did, but the reactions were very positive. As for ON TIDY ENDINGS…a lot of people were very moved. Cheryl did an outstanding job, as did Samantha. My experience in college had been so amazing however, that i couldn't help feeling that this one wasn't quite as good...mainly because of me. I had a harder time connecting with the character. In a strange way, i had a harder time feeling the homosexuality. The play's not about sexuality, but…it was almost like i was more heterosexual at 32 than i had been at 21 (or just more sexual), which made it harder to feel the part. Believe me, i found all this a bit distressing, as an actor. Whether a show is good or bad is largely subjective, contingent upon personal responses that often have little to do with the quality of the performances. Similar intangibles apply to why an actor plays a certain part well (or not). Maybe it was just something about this group chemistry that made it tougher for me. Audience members assured me that the show and i had been beautiful, and we were well-received by critics. We didn't create the buzz that SEXUAL PERVERSITY had however, and even had to cancel one performance. But we made our crowds very happy. In the closing moments of TIDY ENDINGS, as Jenny hugs my character for the first time, Supertramp's song "Is It Mine" came up. So sweet. FAROUK was a burst of immense joy, and the first play of mine to ever be produced. That was no small feeling.