‘Turn in Your Hymnal’ never adds up to much
Bric Barker’s rarely performed “Turn in Your Hymnal” – billed as a “Southern-fried comedy” – is a pleasant diversion for a small community theater. It features two talented actors, competent direction and enough charm to keep you smiling much of the time.
But it doesn’t add up to much.
First, there’s that script. A very conservative tie-clad student at a Southern Baptist college is forced to room with a foul-mouthed, raggedy-haired apparent agnostic . The author gives us the comedy you’d expect in such a clash. The agnostic winds up causing the religious fanatic to doubt his faith, and in the end, the pair (no surprise here) become friends and influence each other’s lives.
The dialogue has its share of chuckles, but the humor isn’t strong enough to sustain the play. The debates the two men have about religion are pedestrian. And worse, the change in the relationship is contrived.
Director Troy Heard falls victim to the easy traps. He doesn’t get us to believe the transformation. He and the actors signal to us by sudden shifts in tone that a “change” is now coming. We don’t feel we’re watching a real relationship – and the relationship is the play.
At first, Gus Langley, as the rad Reggie, does an expert job of inhabiting his role. He doesn’t fake eccentricity. You don’t know where Langley ends and Reggie begins. It’s when he turns all sweet and understanding that he seems false. I suspect there wasn’t sufficient rehearsal time for him to figure out a way to make the reversal genuine.
Alex Olson exhibits no connection to the innocence of Johnny. He keeps signaling to the audience what his character is feeling. Unlike Langley, though, he does well with the serious scenes. But it’s a lazy performance.
Olson just last week finished up a leading role in another show. Plus, he’s a university student. The impressio n I get is that he doesn’t have the time to get details right.
Could it be that he doesn’t realize how difficult good acting is?
Anthony Del Valle can be reached at vegastheaterchat@aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.