Posted November 6, 2006
By Warren Gerds, Green Bay Press-Gazette
“The Brothers Plank”
8 p.m. Friday-Saturday through Dec. 9 at Venture Theatre, De Pere.
$12 adults, $10 students. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.
3 stars (out of four)
DE PERE — It’s rare to enter a theater to see a person sprawled across a table with a knife in the back and a foot dangling from a fireplace. That’s the way the evening starts with “The Brothers Plank” at Venture Theatre.
Puzzlement never ceases in the new play by Mike Eserkaln, one of the mainstays of the Venture Theatre/ ComedyCity complex.
This time, Eserkaln toys with words and banter and spins out contrivances endlessly, starting from the get-go.
The knife-in-the-back/foot-in-the-fireplace setup is a birthday present for creaky old Lady Aberline (Peggy Eserkaln) from her chauffeur Snyvling (Peter Blavat). It means Lady Aberline’s sons — detectives Reginald “Plank” Plank (Mike Lorenz) and Thelonius “Tipsy” Plank (Tim Miller) — will visit and solve the mystery for her.
Quirky capering continues all through the for-laughs mystery show directed with spirit by Gary Radke.
Joe Abrahamson and Kristen Abrahamson join the frolicking as assorted characters.
Running gags include Snyvling’s attempts to poison, bomb, drown or bop himself to oblivion; Lady Aberline’s extended death scenes; and the Plank Brothers’ detective competition (they even keep score).
The production is unique in having professional clowns Lorenz and Miller as leads. They slip in physicality (little fights), sight gags (including a bit with funny-looking boxer shorts) and the give-and-take (with words added) that’s found in clown duos.
“The Brothers Plank” is a spoof on British mysteries with convoluted plots. This show has convolution down pat, with little rhyme or reason for what happens except to produce a laugh.
Eserkaln starts action in an English manor and manages to put the brothers on an ocean liner headed to Brazil. Shipboard characters pop up to fuel more tomfoolery for the brothers to play off of.
In the end, all the loose threads that have been flying through the story are tied up, in a pseudo-sensible way.
‘Tis an odd, odd play.
