[Steppes] OT: Medieval Normandy play

[Chiara]

Much too funny to pass up. Only tonight and tomorrow night left on performances though.

For information on how to get to the Undermain, visit
http://www.guidelive.com/profile/106150

The review from _The Dallas Morning News_.

By LAWSON TAITTE / The Dallas Morning News

Maybe it's only natural that a history play about an age obsessed
with apocalypse should be funny. How do you face living on the edge
of destruction without a sense of the absurd? In any case, Silence is
downright hilarious.

In fact, this play by Moira Buffini, which Undermain Theatre opened
on Oct. 12, inspires more raucous laughter than any of the company's
efforts since Goose and Tomtom, more than a decade ago. Katherine
Owens' production is also one of the finest in Undermain's
distinguished history.

Ymma, a noblewoman from medieval Normandy (Allison Darby), has been
banished to England with her servant Agnes (Rhonda Boutte). The
British king, Ethelred (Bruce DuBose), whimsically condemns her to
marry Silence (Suzanne Thomas), the 14-year-old master of the
northern region of Cumbria. Ymma offends the king and must take
flight. Her party is accompanied by Eadric, a knight who has fallen
in love with her (Todd Haberkorn), and Roger (David Stroh), a naïve
priest who tutors Silence.

Ms. Buffini's play examines all sorts of portentous themes, from
existential angst and religious questioning to feminist empowerment.
Her characters, too, are people we have to take seriously on the
deepest level.

It's hard to say, then, what makes them so darned funny. Partly it's
that their emotions lie closer to the surface than in a realistic
contemporary play. They possess an innocence, as well as an
unselfconscious brutality. They're lovable and horrifying at the same
time.

The high style with which Ms. Owens' cast invests them helps, too.