Knight of the Burning Pestle

The play called for an lead actor to play the apprentice (or Knight) who could lead the audience through all this confusion, an actor who could be funny, pathetic and heroic by turns, an actor who would need to interact frequently with the audience. It seemed like a perfect vehicle for the massive comic talents of long-time Marin Shakespeare favorite Darren Bridgett.

Surrounding -- and attempting constantly to upstage -- Darren, director Robert Currier assembled a veritable "Who's Who" of Bay Area comic talent. Jarion Monroe sang and drank his way through the chaos as George Maguire tried to hold it all together while wearing a rainbow-colored fright wig and clown regalia; Mary Knoll in her pink tutu was awkward, sultry and naive all at once, Andrew Fonda Jackson was a lisping pigeon-toed jilted suitor and Drew Hirshfield stole hearts as the romantic hero in a pink body suit; feisty Maureen O'Donoghue and Ron Severdia in a sailor outfit reminiscent of little John-John Kennedy rounded out the cast of "The London Merchant." (Ron doubled in drag as a horny Princess in love with the Knight.) As the "straight" characters in the play, Julian Lopez-Morillas and Linda Paplow managed to draw their own large share of laughs, as did Don Pitsch and Robert Leach as the Knight's hapless sidekicks.

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