 "Photo: Karl McDonald")
Il Teatro Nostro opened their production of David Mamet's play "Revenge of the Space Pandas" or "Binky Rudich and the Two-Speed Clock" this weekend at United States Art Authority, 512 W. 29th St. The play, one of Mamet's few plays for children, runs about an hour and is delightful. Appropriate for all ages, "Space Pandas" blends rapid-fire dialogue with a fantastic story to deliver an exciting and ridiculous look at what two children and a sheep can get done in the five minutes before lunch.
Leonard "Blinky" Rudich (Patrick Byers), Vivian Mooster (Heather Whisenhunt) and Bob the Sheep (Andrew Butler) are ejected off of the Earth to Crestview, the fourth planet of the Goolagong System. There they meet some space pandas, get threatened with pumpkins and the tyrannical George Topax (Spencer Driggers) puts a bounty on their heads.
The children are played with gusto. The actors' movements are childlike and consistent - an exhibition of a controlled lack of control. The cast's timing is, for the most part, right on. This is no small feat with Mamet's style of writing lines right on top of each other. The costumes add wonderful theatricality to the play. The space pandas are brimming with attitude and look like care bears - an awfully squeezable extragalactic police force. Topax - with a performance inspired by Gary Oldman in "The Fifth Element" - is a wonderful and ruthless tyrant. The exchange between Topax and Edward Farpis (James Brownlee) is one of the high points of this delightful play.
Il Teatro Nostro is a new community theater group here in Austin, with "Space Pandas" as their third production. This play is a perfect reminder of how community theater can bring entertaining fun to the area. The play is silly without being trite, and well worth the time and money.
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