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Regional Reviews: Washington, D.C. Laugh Studio Theatre in Washington is presenting the world premiere of Laugh, Beth Henley's zany comedy with a sincere heart. While Henley is best known for Crimes of the Heart, which received the Pulitzer Prize in 1981, her new work is a valentine to early cinema, specifically the classic silent comedies of the 1920s—complete with the kind of florid language found on silent film title cards—but still including her familiar way of finding humor in the outrageous. The minimalist scenic design by Andromache Chalfant suggests a soundstage with its fragments of scenery: a pair of theater seats here, a piece of picket fence there, occasionally an atmospheric backdrop. Frank Labovitz's costumes, on the other hand, tend toward gorgeous excess in lace, satin, and an eye-popping yellow gown for a character named Miss Bee Sunshine. In Henley's determinedly non-realistic world, cleverly realized by director David Schweizer, the central characters are scrappy Mabel (Helen Cespedes) and effete Roscoe (Creed Garnick), who take their names from silent film comedians Mabel Normand and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. The action begins with a bang as Mabel and her friend Curly P. Curtis (Evan Zes) discover a gold mine with the help of some dynamite. Roscoe lives with his rapacious Aunt Octobra (Emily Townley), who tries to engineer a marriage between him and Mabel so she can seize control of Mabel's fortune. Fortuitously, Mabel and Roscoe find a true bond in their love for the movies (he tells her, "I find sanctuary in the picture palace"), which causes Mabel to decide her future awaits in Hollywood. Detours along the path to love and success include a meeting with a man determined to build an empire in "pornographic valentines" and a stop in "Nowheresville." In addition to the solidly entertaining and heartfelt performances of Cespedes and Garnick, four other actors—the indomitable Townley, Zes, Jacob Ming-Trent, and Felicia Curry—shape-shift into all the other characters. Adding to the theatricality of the production is the constant presence of pianist and composer Wayne Barker, who introduces each scene with a brief comment and underscores the proceedings in the manner of the theater pianists who accompanied silent movies.
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