At This Evening's Performance
THE STORY: On tour in rural Dunsk (recently annexed by the hated socialist state of Strevia) a theatrical troupe is obliged to present corny melodramas and creaky verse plays as modern drama has been banned by their new masters. Led by a hammy egomaniac (who has amorous designs on the company’s ingenue) and his Amazonian wife (who is herself in panting pursuit of the group’s handsome juvenile), the actors seem more concerned with romantic assignations than politics until they discover that their new stage manager is a Strevian spy. To make matters worse, it also develops that one of the lines in the play of the evening is a secret cue for subversive activity and that the speaker (a member of the underground) will be summarily disposed of by a gunman in the audience. All this reaches its hilarious climax in a wildly funny play-within-a-play in which the wrong man is shot, the right man is spared, and the Players of Dunsk decide to head for the border—and freedom in the West.
This hilarious and cleverly constructed farce echoes the richly literate comedies of Molnar. Dealing with the backstage machinations of a theatre troupe on tour in an Eastern European country, the play blends romantic entanglements, political intrigue and a wildly funny skewing of “classic drama” into a non-stop delight.
“AT THIS EVENING’S PERFORMANCE is a farce, and as deftly written as they come…potentially a classic of its kind.” —New Brunswick Home News.
“…a backstage, police-stage romp with noises off that range from the crack of a thunder sheet to a pistol shot.” —The New York Times.
