Diner Tales

By Tim Joyce

Raven Theatre

http://raventheatre.com

 

A few years back I took a comedy-writing course at Second City.  One of the assignments was the writing of a “make-believe” skit.  A make-believe skit, I was told, is one that happens in a make-believe world, but this world is not questioned because from the start of the scene the audience just accepts the fact that this is the way things are, and the scene goes from there. Many examples of this can be found in past Saturday Night Live skits, including the series of Conehead sketches – obviously there is no such thing in this world as alien people with cone-shaped bald heads.  But when one sees the skit, you just accept the fact from the start that we are seeing a world where things and people like this do occur.

 

“Diner Tales”, a new comedy developed from Raven Theatre’s workshop series, consists of two one-act plays.  Though solidly written, the piece suffers from the fact that the one-act in the first half of the play can roughly be categorized as a real-world scene where as the second act is more of a make-believe world.  This incongruity is further accentuated by the fact that both acts take place in the same diner, with the same set and many of the same characters. 

 

The first act of “Diner Tales”, called “Coffee on Wednesday”, tells the story of two middle-aged men, the neurotic and unhappy Pat (played by the writer, Tim Joyce) and the naïve and risk-averse Steve (Christopher Scheithe). They meet for coffee every Wednesday in the same Chicago Greek diner, revealing their world to us over many Wednesday conversations, a world of superficiality, unfaithfulness, risk-aversion and numerous mid-life crises.  This is undeniably the better of the two one-acts.  The dialogue skillfully moves from being fast-paced, loony, and satirical, to prose that looks inwardly into the men’s yearnings and misgivings. 

 

The second act, “Without a Net”, centers on the diner’s two waitresses: Elsie (Stacie Doublin), the star circus tight-rope walker who returns back to waitressing after the producer of the circus she is performing with suddenly cancels the rest of the tour, and Ilana (Christa Trinler), who has worked at the diner for years and who we soon find out has a dark secret regarding past events occurring within the diner’s walls.  But although this is seemingly the same diner with the same waitresses and cook, things have changed to the degree of implausibility.  Suddenly Elsie, along with a second waitress Ilana, is incredibly rude to their customers.  If they are not criticizing or yelling at them, they are ignoring them.  When one male patron complains about not getting coffee, they tell him to go get it himself.  As this customer fetches the coffee pot and serves coffee to himself and other diners, instead of being expectedly angry at the wait staff, he whines to them “I just want you to like me.”.  Ugh.  A diner where such customer mistreatment is commonplace can definitely work and can definitely be funny if presented from the beginning in this type of make-believe world.  But the problem occurs in the fact that at the beginning of the first act the diner is not presented as such.  The diner we see in the first half is a congenial place where the waitresses are thoughtful and attentive to their patrons.  This abrupt change is unbelievable and uncomfortably jarring.

 

The acting is sufficient, though Stacie Doublin plays the tight-rope walker Elsie in much too stiff of manner.  (Perhaps caused by too much time on the high wire?) 

 

The set is noteworthy – the café is presented in complete detail, from the diner-esque tile floor, to the chalkboard with the day’s special (grilled-cheese sandwich combo - $4.50!) to the actual coffee brewing behind the counter.  The food is even real, as we see (and smell) the diner’s food being prepared as the play progresses.  This freshly-cooked food is ultimately a bad idea, as the strong aroma is either distracting to those in the audience who are hungry or nauseating to those not enamored with the smell of a greasy spoon.  (I’m just glad that Urinetown didn’t use the same gimmick!).

 

On a side not – even though I’ve been to the Raven Theatre complex numerous times, I’m each time still pleasantly surprised at what an inviting, classy space it is.  The walls of the lobby are tastefully lined with nicely-framed black-and-white cast photos of Raven’s many excellent productions, and the two theatre spaces within the building are well-designed and comfortable.  (My experience at Raven is even more of a treat as I actually used to frequent the building’s former tenant, a grocery store!).  If you haven’t been to the Raven before, I urge you to take a trip there.  It’s a great theatre company in a great theatre city.  I would hold off on going, though, until after Diner Tales finishes its run.

 

 

Rating: 1.5 stars