“Herringbone,” Tom Cone’s odd venture first presented in 1981 at the old St. Nicholas Theatre, literally combines vaudeville and horror movie.
A one-man vehicle that proved a tour de force in its day for the late actor David Rounds, “Herringbone” focuses on a multi-talented burlesque performer who, in the course of playing all the parts in his life story, suggests he’s actually a victim of multiple personalities. The piece is dark fable, sawdust catalog and creep show all in one.
A new group called Mostly Harmless Theatre is now giving this curiosity its first revival here at the Body Politic Theatre. The trick is to find a performer who approaches near genius at characterization and musical shtick. Brian Stepanek, while passable in all the feats required, is star in none of them.
Though hardly an embarrassment, his “Herringbone” is an endurance test, both for him and his audience. He’s amiable and admirably indefatigable. But the show raises doubts about the premise itself, about the wisdom of requiring so much from one performer and about the questionable taste of the storyline, which can’t seem to decide if insanity and child abuse are laughing matters or not.
George Herringbone the showman takes us back in his narrative to 1929, a year when his father and mother, like so many others, are at the end of their economic tether.
After 8-year-old George wins a speech contest in their small Alabama town, they ask a strange, former vaudevillian to teach their son how to be an entertainer.
The vaudevillian once had an act with a midget. The midget is dead, but not gone, and he re-emerges as a ghost who overtakes young George’s body.
This brings him success in vaudeville, but leads to murder, underage sex and a kidnapping of the unhappy George, no longer in control of his own life or limbs.
Stepanek sings, dances and mimics up a storm, but he fails to grip the audience long or hard enough to avoid spells of monotony.
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“Herringbone” plays for an open end at the Body Politic, 2261 N. Lincoln Ave. Phone 312-345-0330.
