The Amoralists explore infidelity and haunted spirits in world premiere at Abrons Arts Center (photo by Russ Rowland)
A SAVANNAH GHOST STORY
Abrons Arts Center Playhouse
466 Grand St. at Pitt St.
Friday – Tuesday through September 21, $50
212-598-0400
www.abronsartscenter.org
www.amoralists.com
The “Summer of the Amoralists,” which began with the ever-inventive New York-based theater company’s outstanding Rantoul and Die, comes to a disappointing close with the rather mundane southern Gothic ghost story The Cheaters Club. It’s all the more frustrating because it’s written and directed by resident playwright and company cofounder Derek Ahonen, who gave a virtuoso performance in Rantoul and Die and has previously scripted the gripping detective noir The Bad and the Better and wrote and directed the wickedly funny sex comedy Pink Knees on Pale Skin for the Amoralists. Bookended by tipsy Dickensian tour guide Vladimir Anton (Zen Mansley), The Cheaters Club is set in Savannah, Georgia, America’s Most Haunted City. Geist Ubernachtung is approaching for the first time in 333 years, a night when the spirits of the dead will cross over from the other side and take corporeal form. Siblings Tommy (Matthew Pilieci), Jimmy (Byron Anthony), and Cathy Mayola (Cassandra Paras) have arrived at the Chaney Inn for their annual family vacation, during which they take off their wedding rings and immerse themselves in a celebration of infidelity; this year they have brought along a friend, Vonn (Jordan Tisdale), who is looking to get even with his wife, Linda (Anna Stromberg), who recently betrayed him. The inn is run by the creepy Mama Chaney (Sarah Lemp), with her creepy teenage son, Lee (James Rees), working as the bellhop, older son Lawrence (David Nash) selectively serving drinks behind the bar, and sexy daughter Lana (Kelley Swindall) performing songs with an oddball piano player (Ben Reno) in the lounge. Soon strange, unexplainable things are happening, leading to a second act in which the four protagonists’ spouses — Charlie (James Kautz), Susan (Vanessa Vaché), Pat (Wade Dunham), and Linda — show up, looking for their loved ones. The Cheaters Club feels like an unfinished genre exercise thrown together quickly to primarily entertain the Amoralists themselves and their deservedly loyal followers. The night we attended, there were random belly laughs and echoing guffaws emanating from individual audience members at unusual moments, as if there were inside jokes and references the rest of us weren’t quite privy to. Even the acting, generally a strong point for the Amoralists, is surprisingly flat, getting no help from a bumpy narrative that never achieves any kind of flow. The cast appears to be having a lot of fun onstage, but this production by one of the city’s best troupes will leave you feeling cheated.