Boulder – Purchasing a ticket to “Kimberly Akimbo” at the Nomad would be a great show of support for a historic theater struggling mightily for survival. The “greater good” is reason enough to recommend David Lindsay Abaire’s quirky comedy about a nice 16-year-old girl who ages at 4½ times the normal rate.
But Nomad’s modest production is only baseline competent, so one should not go expecting a fully realized theatrical effort.
The Nomad is a 51-year treasure that Boulder’s city government seems indifferent toward helping. It is $200,000 in debt, and its doors already would be closed if Brian Miller were not a man of honor. Subscribers had paid for two upcoming shows when the previous Nomad administration disintegrated in November.
But like a man alone on a life raft, Miller was determined to honor Nomad’s commitment to subscribers – first by offering an admittedly disastrous production of “Orpheus in Rio” and now the more capable but still underachieving “Akimbo.”
Because the playwright is Abaire, one might expect the trademark domestic freakishness of “Fuddy Meers” or “Wonder of the World.” It’s there, but “Akimbo” is really built around a single novelty: At 16, Kimberly Levaco has the appearance of a grandmother and has surpassed her life expectancy. Her infantile parents already have given her up for dead.
Dad is a gas-pumping boozer who drinks though Kimberly’s 16th birthday at a tavern. Mom is a heinous hypochondriac with language bluer than you’ll hear on “Deadwood.” Debra is a criminally obnoxious lesbian aunt who draws Kimberly into a check-washing scheme.
Kimberly is a sweet girl with an old soul. All she wants from her parents is discipline, occasional vegetables and a swear jar. In other words, the “kid” is the only responsible one. The obvious visual pun here is that in this upside-down, chaotic world, there is visual order: The true matriarch here actually looks the part (well, except for the tricolored hair, spikes, fatigues and crazy wide ties).
But little else appears to be going on here.
The production features a respected cast including the great but wasted Denise Perry-Olson (Bas Bleu’s “Old Times”), David Blumenstock (The Avenue’s “Metamorphoses”) and Marian Bennett, a 35-year veteran of the Longmont Theatre Company who always lets you see the girl inside the grown woman.
But the actor who acquits of himself best is Fairview High’s Scott Ryan, who makes his professional debut as Kimberley’s young suitor Scott. They make for a cute “Harold and Maude” – without the wisdom.
Maybe Ryan is a little too effective as a kid obsessed with dungeons, dragons and turning people’s names into anagrams. Because soon I was completely preoccupied with his “name hobby.” I came up with “Mojo On Her” for my own name, which was terribly fun – but didn’t say much for what was taking place on stage.
Perhaps that’s because the cast was so dispassionately guided by director John Thornberry. There was no flow, no exaggeration beyond shrieking. The concept that eludes here is that for both the production and our dying heroine, time is of the essence. But nothing feels all that urgent. Mari Geasair seems particularly abandoned trying to make Debra’s two sneering dimensions (crazy and gross) into three.
The play should be an alternatingly hilarious and heartbreakingly poignant roller-coaster; it is never much of either. When Kimberly yells, “Could we just be normal for one minute?” the moment should make us ache.
The evening was one of those dreaded “if it can go wrong, it will” evenings the cast weathered nobly. The sound effects were almost comically mistimed, so that if someone honked a horn, the sound might not come until five seconds later. Prop pieces fell over or into the audience. A curtain flap was turned up, allowing the audience to see the backstage goings-on from start to finish.
If this really is curtains for the Nomad, it deserves a much better death scene. One with a closed curtain.
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-820-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
“Kimberly Akimbo”
COMEDY|Presented by Nomad Theatre, 1410 Quince St.|Written by David Lindsay Abaire|Directed by John Thornberry|Starring Marian Bennett, David Blumenstock, Denise Perry-Olson, Mari Geasair and Scott Ryan|THROUGH JUNE 4|8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays|2 hours|$18-$20|303-684-3140
