Midweek mayhem!

In a bowl of the surreal, MadHorse Theatre mixed together Beckett, Shakespeare, a line-less actor, an evil nun and Sir Thomas Moore, proving on Tuesday night that mid-week is a good time for drama. In the second installment of their weekday Dark Night Series, the company produced two Christopher Durang plays, "The Actor's Nightmare" and "Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You."

The selection of Durang, a well-received playwright, is unique and refreshing for Portland.

"The Actor's Nightmare," directed by Craig Bowden, has a title that says it all. George Spelvin, an accountant, is thrust onto the stage without remembering ever having been to a rehearsal, and is then forced to improvise his way through the play.

The genre comedy worked within the stage actor's or actresses' world. As Spelvin chased the spotlights changing positions, the audience had an opportunity to see the breakdown of the second by second alterations a performer has to know ahead of time.

The fun slowed towards the middle of the play when it dragged its joke out just a little too long with Spelvin on stage by himself.

But that also seemed part of the point. The show must go on. And after working through famous Shakespearean lines like, "To be or not to be," and "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse," Beckett's shadow appears brilliantly through Andrea Lopez who plays Ellen Terry sitting in a trashcan.

Lopez's dry humor melds with the dark and foreboding language of Beckett that intertwines stage directions with real dialog. She slips seamlessly into her words the 'pause pause' and 'she twitches her nose.'

The production shines in its chaos and ends as it begins, with George on the wrong side of the joke.

James Herrera played the confused George Spelvin aptly, with a series of energetic shocked and panic-stricken faces that were reminiscent of Rodney Dangerfield.

"Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It all For You," had the warmed-up audience laughing throughout it's first half. The stereotypically strict nun, Sister Mary, was pleasantly over-the-top. Her simple, straightforward, yet narrow-minded beliefs start comically and are conveyed with a vibrant likeability by Kathleen Kimball.

The young Dylan Chestnutt plays her innocent pupil, Thomas, with a never-ending smile that perfectly defines the caricature role.

While explaining the finer points of Catholicism to the audience with Thomas' help, who is perfect at his catecism, several of Sister Mary's students return to her classroom after many years in the real world. The first order of business is to perform a very funny nativity play for her. The audience soon found, however, that they have not come to spread cheer.

The drama suddenly changed into a heavy-hitting morality play about the immorality of conservative catholic schools. The production wobbled between humor and high intensity drama before closing with a darkly comedic ending that pulled the two together at the very last second.

The quality of acting and direction in these two plays shows that Mad Horse Theatre is taking their Dark Night Series seriously and want to have fun with it. Rather then waste the winter blues huddled in the house watching television, the Epiblogue recommends that you get up and check out the second Dark Night Series which performs at 7:30 p.m., Mon. thru Wed. until Feb. 4.

For more information about this and upcoming Mad Horse Theatre events, visit madhorse.com.

Playwrights and time travel

Brent Askari lived out the scenarios of his play "Cloudhoppers" AFTER he wrote and recently directed it for Mad Horse Productions. This begs the obvious question: Does the South Portland resident travel through time?

Unfortunately, the Epiblogue doesn't have the budget to investigate this inquiry and we instead caught up with the playwright at the start of the new year to discuss local drama.

"Theatre takes risks you can't see in other mediums," said Askari. There are so many filters to get from point A to point Z in television and film that a writer's creative discretion can become a moot point, he said.

And Askari would know. He supports himself by writing and rewriting scripts for film and television.

But who cares about selling-out artistic integrity when there is theatre? Well, for one thing, it doesn't pay much--neither for the acting or the writing that Askari contributes to Southern Maine venues.

His recent play, "Cloudhoppers," explores what happens when two people are delayed in an airport one too many times. Overlapping this plot is a discussion about allowing indecision to delay our own lives. So, when Askari's flight was recently grounded overnight, he experienced a flashback to his own work, or, as the Epiblogue suspects, he travelled back in time to write the play.

Either way, the familiar airport scenario would suggest that theatre can be both contemporary and pertinent. Askari agrees.

Askari said he, like many, would like to raise awareness about the local scene's efforts and talents. He said he would like to see contemporary plays that have succeeded in other regions be performed in the area, rather than rehashing the well-known, but repetitive plays in constant production.

Nurturing local talent is also important, said Askari. Portland is doing well so far in promoting new writers with various contests, said the playwright, and diversifying the importation of new plays from other areas can only raise the talent of local actors, actresses, directors and writers.

The Epiblogue wanted to know if Askari had travelled in time to see who would be a famous playwright, actress or actor from Portland so the rest of us could spend our time on other pursuits, but he coyly avoided revealing his secrets.

He even implied that hard work, lots of writing and viewing plays are the best advice he would give to struggling playwrights. Easy for him to say when he can travel through time.

Askari, 38, willing be acting in several upcoming plays with Mad Horse Productions, including "Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You" and "History Boys." He is currently working on a play about a book club gone wrong and is tentative about ever writing a second novel.