Date: Fri 08-Dec-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Illustration: C

Location: B-6

Quick Words:

Robbers-Long-Wharf-Hirsch

Full Text:

(rev of "Robbers" at Long Wharf, 12/8/95)

Theatre Review-

"Robbers" Reminiscent of Past

(with cut)

By Julie Stern

NEW HAVEN - Lyle Kessler's Robbers , being presented at Long Wharf's smaller

Stage II Theatre through December 23, stars Judd Hirsch and is being directed

by Marshall Mason, who guided Hirsch on Broadway in such shows as Talley's

Folly .

Judging by the audience's delight when Hirsch makes his first appearance on

stage, he is clearly the man they have come to see. And while Kessler's work

is billed as a "wacky journey into the corporate world," it is also a bit

reminiscent of "Taxi" reruns, not so much for the underlying premise but in

the episodic sitcom quality of the plot and the staginess of the comic bits.

At times it gives the feeling of sitting in the midst of a laugh track.

Robbers is a fable about Ted, a handsome but dim Tony Danza-like young man who

dreams of a life more fulfilling and exciting than living in Flatbush and

driving a van to deliver pet supplies to the five boroughs. Played with vigor

by Peter Rini, Ted is hapless but appealing, even as he is bullied

unmercifully by his irascible and eccentric father (Robert Hogan).

Ted gets his chance when he meets Feathers, a mysterious Indian who runs a

detective agency. Feathers, played by Hirsch as a Buffalo nickel, offers Ted

the chance to become one of his operatives: Feathers needs a man who can

infiltrate a canning factory and discover which of the employees is stealing

merchandise.

As he becomes friends with the workers and dates the women, Feathers promises

Ted he will discover new talents and unplumbed depths to his personality. In

other words, he will grow into a new and more formidable identity. Eagerly,

Ted takes him up on the offer and sets off for a new career and life in Bay

Ridge. He even has a new name: Kenneth.

As an added gimmick the factory owner is also played by Judd Hirsch - this

time as an imperious hothead with a peculiar penchant for religious

conversions, allowing him to appear by turns as a Buddhist, a rabbi and a

Russian orthodox priest.

He also has a nymphomaniacal daughter, Lucinda, played with hellish enthusiasm

by Katherine Hiler, who adjusts her own role - part Mikado school girl, part

Jewish-American princess, part swinging nun - as she continues her hot pursuit

of Ted/Kenneth.

Meanwhile, Ted is caught in a bind of conflicting loyalties. Just as Feathers

promised, he finds within himself a capacity for charm that makes him hugely

popular with the other co-workers. His assignment is to trade on their

confidence and find out who is doing the stealing, but this entails betraying

the girl he falls in love with and the man who has taken him under his wing as

a bosom friend.

Suddenly we have Mephistophelian overtones, as the suavely sinister Feathers

appears to remind Ted of his obligations. Can we ever go back to what we were

in our simpler days, or are our interpersonal sins and betrayals written in

stone? Can we change who we are as easily as the owner's daughter changes her

costume and her accent?

There are glimmers, too, of class consciousness in the solidarity of the

workers against the exploitation by the factory owner, but I think that was

just filler, allowing for Paul Ben-Victor to get off a lot of comic riffs in

the role of Ted/Kenneth's new friend Vinnie, his Puerto Rican buddy on the

loading dock. I think he had the most fun in his part. Also, Kira Arne was

sweet and sexy as Cleo, the girl Kenneth falls in love with but whom he must

betray in order to succeed at his job.

Robbers is entertaining but it is also all too reminiscent of other things: of

Sixties improv comedy troupes, of the pseudo profundity of early Albee, and of

the kinds of shows you don't see on public television.