Arts & Leisure
Mike Kimball's cowboy comedy opens Friday
Michael Kimball's new play Best Enemies stars Portland stage veteran Michael Crockett, left, and longtime Seacoast area actor/director Chris Savage.
Courtesy photo
YORK - "Let's say you got one guy who wants war, and another guy wants peace," says Cody, in Michael Kimball's new play Best Enemies. "Who says the guy that wants war always gets his way?"
"The guy who wants war," answers Rex, as he takes up arms against his companion.
Best Enemies is a dark comedy about two cowboys marooned on a tiny desert island, lone survivors of a sabotaged rodeo cruise. A pair of cowboys? Lest one might suspect that Kimball's play treads in bootprints set down by a recent movie, these particular hombres wouldn't have been caught dead in that audience.
In fact, Best Enemies veers toward "magic realism," a genre of heightened realism in art and literature where fantastic elements appear unquestioned and unexplained alongside the very ordinary, and viewers are asked to suspend not only their disbelief, but their logic.
"I don't know if rodeo cruises exist or not - and I don't care," said Kimball, the York author best known for his suspense novels Green Girls, Mouth to Mouth and Undone. "I started writing this play after seeing one of those age-old desert island cartoons in a magazine … At the time, Brokeback Mountain was on everyone's mind, so I made the guys cowboys - but homophobic cowboys, which in itself charges the context with enough comic tension to drive 20 plays. But it wasn't long before real-life issues began creeping into the story - war, religion, politics - and pretty soon my cartoon cowboys began casting shadows."
Rex, played by Michael Crockett, is a Texas rancher true to traditions of the American western, a grim loner haunted by a dark past. Rex is responsible for establishing the island's imaginary mountain and forest as well as its legal system. Laws such as no talking about women or food are crimes punishable by hunger.
Cody, played by Chris Savage, is a rodeo clown with a lust for conversation and a gnawing curiosity about his secretive island mate.
Best Enemies is the second of Kimball's plays to grace the Players' Ring stage this year. Ghosts of Ocean House, winner of the Ring's F. Gary Newton Playwriting Competition, packed the intimate theater for three weeks in May. Kimball, who quit writing novels in favor of plays two years ago, now has theatre companies across the country performing his plays, from 10-minute one-acts to full-length shows.
"People ask me why I chose a career track that resembles leaping off a cliff," he said, his trademark humor coming through. "Money issues aside, I enjoy playwriting tremendously. After 21 years working alone, suddenly I've discovered a way to employ the same skills, but with small bands of talented, passionate people, all in pursuit of the same goal: sculpting a story with structure and meaning and emotional drive, and creating an environment in which characters can rise to life before our eyes. It's exhilarating - and who knows? With luck, maybe someday it'll pay a few bills."
The premiere run of Best Enemies is directed by Lisa Stathoplos, who has worked for 30 years in stage, film and TV, both as actor and director, as well as a teacher of improvisation and acting across the nation.
"Mike's play is such a character-driven piece," says Stathoplos, "and that makes it juicy to direct. Having two guys on an island with just a rock, a stick and a hat makes the whole thing very much about relationship - and that's delicious. That's life."
The cast is rounded out by a pair of mysterious visitors played by Portland actress Amanda Painter and York's own Eric Bakke, of Johnny Wad and The Cash fame.
Best Enemies premieres at The Players' Ring in Portsmouth, N.H., Oct. 6 - 22, with Friday and Saturday night performances at 8 p.m. and Sunday shows at 7 p.m. Tickets are $12, $10 for students, seniors and theatre members. For reservations, call (603) 436-8123.
