Richmond Hill Players close their 2023 season with “Unnecessary Farce,” a comedy by Paul Slade Smith.
The show will be presented Thursdays through Sundays, Nov. 9-19 at the Barn Theatre in Geneseo. RHP veteran Jonathan Grafft (who co-starred in “Misery” at the Barn this past summer) directs the show.
The play synopsis: Two cops. Three crooks. Eight doors. Go! In a cheap motel room, two incompetent undercover cops wait anxiously to videotape a meeting in the adjoining room between an embezzling mayor and his female accountant, who is working with the cops. But there so much confusion; who’s in which room now?
Who’s being videotaped? Who’s taken the money? Who hired a Scottish hit man (whose accent becomes more incomprehensible the angrier he gets), and why does the accountant keeps taking off her clothes?!
The cast features Nathan Johnson, Dana Skiles, Jessica White, Chris White (Geneseo), Katie Orwig (Atkinson), Mike Kelly (Rock Island) and Scott Harl (Peru).
A 2012 review of a Chicago production said it is “that rarest of theatrical birds: a farce that is actually funny. Sure, it’s silly to the max, but it makes the audience laugh, the primary responsibility of a farce (and a goal rarely achieved). Paul Slade Smith, a popular Chicagoland actor a couple of decades ago, wrote this comedy in 2006, and it has since received critically praised productions throughout the country.”
The playwright is also the author of “The Outsider,” which recently enjoyed a stellar run at Rock Island’s Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse.
At Richmond Hill on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, the doors open at 6:30 with the show beginning at 7:30 p.m. Sundays are 3 p.m. matinees with the doors opening at 2.
Tickets are $12, available by calling 309-944-2244 or by visiting the website HERE.
An audio description performance will be held Friday, Nov. 10. Richmond Hill also offers Assistive Listening Devices (ALDs), which can be requested at the time that reservations are made.
