Review: Trinity Repertory's Indoor/Outdoor

Trinity Repertory's Indoor/Outdoor is a charming fable of love, wanderlust and ultimately, contentment.

 

Written by Kenny Finkle and directed by Kevin Moriarity, Trinity Repertory's production of Indoor/Outdoor is the memoir of Samantha the cat. Trinity Rep. has made it clear, and so will I, that the production is done "without a fake whisker in sight". That is to say, that Indoor/Outdoor is not a musical, has no cat costumes, no cat make-up, and has a linear plot line.

 

We first meet Samantha (Angela Brazil) as she sits on a bright, primary-yellow stage and begins to narrate her life. As she starts the narration from her birth (the runt in a litter of 20) Samantha explains that each action happened "like so:" and then the action is played out for the audience through her memory. "And then I was born, like so:"

 

Our first hint that Samantha will be going on a journey is when we meet me mother; who tells her own story of being forced to give up her children/kittens and live as a live-in servant to a family she despises. The mother cat tells Samantha that like her other children/kittens; she too will be sent away to the animal shelter and when she arrives there she will only have five days to find the perfect owner.

 

 

While at the shelter, Samantha contemplates a life with any one of a stream of potential owners. They appear and disappear courtesy of comical and rapid-fire costume and character changes that include a gender-bending Scarlet O'Hara. Samantha's life changes forever when she meets Shuman (Mauro Hantman), a slightly neurotic web-designer. The music swells, courtesy of Peter Allen and Olivia Newton-John, and a great love story begins.

 

"From the first night we met", Samantha the cat, says, "I slept in his bed. Some of you might think that was really quick." This line of dialogue sets the tone for a most unusual love story between a cat and her owner.

 

As Samantha, Ms. Brazil does not leave the stage during the entire production. She is both the narrator and the main character in the story.

 

Mr. Hantman embodies the role of Shuman earnestly. He plays Shuman as a likable, slightly simple, everyman.

 

As the plot progresses we are introduced to Matilda (Phyllis Kay), who is the "front desk girl (pause) woman" at the veterinarian's office who is also a cat therapist on the side. Which is, she explains, "a legitimate career path". Ms. Kay plays her comic role without regard to how silly she may look or sound while doing it.

 

Samantha's contentment with her domestic life, so to speak, ends with her first encounter with a mouse. As she kills the mouse she envisions herself transforming from a housecat to a "tigress". No longer content in Shuman's bed, she stalks the night searching for excitement.

 

She finds the excitement she seeks in Oscar (Jacques Roy) an alley cat with an urban, streetwise, bad-boy attitude and a heart of gold. A courtship unfolds with a window between them and Samantha and Oscar fall in love. Samantha wants nothing more than to be let out of the house to roam the world with Oscar.

 

Samantha's overwhelming desire to be free and Shuman's desire to keep her in the house and safe provide the conflict in the plot.

 

The entirety of act two is taken up with resolving the conflict; which comes to a fulfilling, if not predictable, conclusion.

 

Jacques Roy (Oscar) plays, perhaps, a dozen other minor characters. (I lost count) Some of the characters are on stage for only seconds at a time. He is required to dash in and out of scenes exiting and entering right, left and center. He accomplishes all of this with great ease. I suspect that Trinity audiences will be seeing more of Mr. Roy. He is currently a Brown/Trinity Rep Consortium student and making his Trinity debut in this production.

 

The director, Kevin Moriarity, uses his cast to give a contemporary believability to a story that is essentially a fable, life lesson and all. The comedy is broad, with a smattering of scatological humor "dumped" in every once in a while. The witty and whimsical story, and the emotions it conveys, are classic and easily accessible.

 

Last night's audience was charmed by this romantic comedy, and you will be too.

 

Indoor/Outdoor runs through March 26, 2006

 

www.trinityrep.com

 

 

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