“The Explorer’s Club,” a well-acted farce at the Lone Tree Arts Center, depicts the inner sanctum of the oldest of old boys’ networks, a Victorian-era London men’s club with animal heads on the walls, skins on the floor, entitlement all around. Here, enjoyment of brandy and cigars is a sacred rite, enacted with hyper-masculine dedication by men who see themselves as conquerors. So when the club’s acting president proposes admitting a woman to the ranks, imagine the pushback.
“There’s nothing wrong with women inherently,” the fulminating begins.
Nell Benjamin’s fun-verging-on-silly play avoids political points and sticks to featherweight joshing, slapstick and puns. Jokes at the expense of sexism, machismo, effeminate men, religion and colonialism are of the least challenging sort.
It’s fun, and Randal Myler’s direction accentuates crisp timing, particularly in some rather gymnastic stunts. But didn’t “The Book of Mormon” teach us that tone-deafness toward indigenous peoples ought to be accompanied by wildly insane proceedings, not just cute moments? The insanity here approaches Groucho Marx’s , but not the Uganda of “Mormon.”
Benjamin, who co-wrote the score to “Legally Blonde: The Musical,” could have reached for tougher zingers, bolder ideas. But this is old-fashioned farce.
Club members — who regularly voice annoyance at rival National Geographic society — include Lucius Fretway (Sam Gregory), the repressed acting president; the senior Professor Sloane (Randy Moore), a pompous “archaeo-theologist,” who believes “God created science”; a herpetologist and a guinea pig owner who share a veiled homoerotic relationship; and cocky Harry Percy (Mark Rubald), who stakes his reputation on his discovery of the East Pole.
Female explorer Phyllida Spotte-Hume (Stephanie Cozart) has brought a tribesman (Christopher Joel Onken) from “the Lost City of Pahatlabong” back to London. This blue-painted, grunting primitive — nicknamed Luigi — delivers to the Brits his tribe’s traditional greeting, a slap across the face.
Denver favorite Gregory holds the story together as the antics escalate, gags are reprised and the club, known for having the worst bartender in town, finds itself under siege. At least there’s a resolution for the bartending, if not for the inanity.
Joanne Ostrow:303-954-1830, jostrow@denverpost.com or @ostrowdp
“THE EXPLORER’S CLUB” By Nell Benjamin. Directed by Randal Myler. With Sam Gregory, Stephanie Cozert, Christopher Joel Onken, Mark Rubald, Randy Moore. Through Oct. 24 at Lone Tree Arts Center, 10075 Commons St., Lone Tree. Tickets $35 at 720-509-1000 or online, lonetreeartscenter.org.
