Superb acting in UNLV’s one-act plays

Joe Delaney

Friday, Oct. 30, 1998 | 11:39 a.m.

UNLV's University Theatre's "Altered States Of America," three original one-act plays, written, directed and performed by students in the 99-seat Paul C. Harris Theatre through Sunday, is easily the best entertainment bargain in Las Vegas this weekend. For less than $5, one can thoroughly enjoy three completely different approaches to the dramatic arts.

Jeanette Farr's "High Octane" takes place in a rundown gas station in Nevada, perhaps near the test site, not too far from Las Vegas. Stan and Sandy, in Stan's hot new car, stop for gas and a trip to the lady's room. Roobie is the attendant and Jeb, who comes in at the midway point, is the mechanic. What ensues is basically a horror story as Stan and Sandy, on their way to be married, become Jeb's captives.

Jennifer Kaplan is a scheming Sandy, playing the high-strung, spineless Stan for all she can. Joel Hanson's Stan is a little overwrought, but you might have been as well under the ensuing circumstances. John Lysaught's Jeb, a would-be man of the cloth and unauthorized dispenser of justice, is eerily menacing but it is Jennifer Correlli's Roobie that is the most realistic portrayal in a quartet of excellent performances, under David Shamburger's taut direction.

Director Larry Stahl makes the most of Mark Kenneally's "Slipping Him The Tongue," a dark comedy about three Georgia rednecks. Scott Johnson's Wally loves Jamie Carvelli's Doris. She wants him to take her to see a Shakespeare play; he wants to go a Monster Truck Mash. They fight. Jason Goldberg's Raimie just wants to go to Disneyland. Wally awakens the next day, speaking in lines as they might have been written by Shakespeare.

He is possessed and wishing to be rid of this strange affliction. He and Raimie call Ingrid, their former English teacher, for help. What ensues is a comic travesty, laughs galore, with Wally being "cured" after a session with Doris, only to find his Shakespearean speech affliction has been passed on to Jaimie. Like the first of the one-act efforts, this, too, is well constructed and performed, with a clever ending.

Nick Zagone's "The Bathers or High Tide," as directed by Noelle Youngblood, is a deja vu exercise, with a series of events involving a dead body happening in a similar fashion some seven years later. Unfortunately, this vital fact is not listed in the program. The actors do as well as they can, but the plot and the pacing are uneven, fragmented, leaving some of the audience obviously unrequited.

Levi Fackrell is Cheese, betrayed and put upon by Bone, his "best friend." Deet (Adam Rushfield) is a computer game freak who gets laughs with what must be a realistic portrayal. Barbara Rollins is unremitting as Cheese's former girl friend, vicious in one subsequent encounter with him. Derek Simpson is Grant from a previous time and similar circumstance while Andy Kaempfer is the Cable Guy with several comedic scenes.

Perhaps because the first two acts played so well and Zagone's act was last, it suffered by comparison. For this critic, it seemed the weakest and the least well-constructed of the three, yet it was well performed. With all this, it was a most satisfying evening of very professional theatre.

JOE DELANEY is a Sun entertainment critic.