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Absurd comedy is a real knockout

A tantalizing slice of artful hilarity premieres at a Dallas theater festival.

By Perry Stewart (Special to the Star-Telegram - 7/20/2004)

Perhaps For the Love of an Anesthesiologist will one day be presented as a companion play to The Tale of the Allergist's Wife. For the present, in its premiere run at the Festival of Independent Theatres, Brad McEntire's comedy shares the bill with two other one-act works that seem pedestrian alongside its artful absurdity.

A packed house had thinned noticeably Friday by the time Anesthesiologist, the last of the three that evening, took the stage at the Bath House Cultural Center. Audience members who left early missed the gem of the trio. (What's with these people? Do they leave baseball games after the sixth inning?)

Staged under the banner of the appropriately named Audacity Productions, McEntire's play introduces the fugitive Alfred -- portrayed with manic gusto by Jeff Swearingen, who looks like Emilio Estevez and sounds like a young Richard Dreyfuss on speed.

Alfred abides in a purgatorial way station where various people from his past parade by. Several are played by Kenneth Fulenwider, who has one encounter with Swearingen that's right out of Waiting for Godot.

Trista Wyly, who has delighted Hip Pocket Theatre and Pocket Sandwich Theatre audiences, is marvelous here as a kinky Eurotrash countess.

In the same festival performance block are:

Graceland, Ellen Byron's wistful comedy about two pathetically devoted Elvis Presley fans, presented by Beardsley Living Theatre. It's competently acted by Brenda Galgan and the endearingly waifish Samantha Chancellor. But it's muted without its frequent companion play, Asleep on the Wind.

Ties, presented by Boaz Unlocked Productions. Writer/director Rebecca Finley follows fantasy-prone Meg (Rebecca Pense) and reality-based Ben (Stephen Tickner) from childhood sweethearthood to adult angst. Ambrosia Tuft's film segments are attractive, but they don't accomplish much except make the play longer.

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