LIFESTYLE
THE CHAMPION, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19 - 25, 2019 • PAGE 20
Georgia Ensemble Theatre serves up Tuna on wry with two-actor comedy
by Kathy Mitchell
The collection of oddballs who seem to inhabit many
small Southern towns provide a rich—and often explored—
vein for comedy When this is done well, it makes for many
laugh-until-tears-roll-down-your-cheeks moments. A Tuna
Christmas, the second in a series of stage comedies set in the
fictional town of Tuna, Texas—“the third smallest town in the
state”—is an outstanding example of small Southern town
comedy done well. A Tuna Christmas is Georgia Ensemble
Theatre’s current holiday offering.
For this production, Georgia Ensemble Theatre has moved
from its usual home in north Fulton County to the Conant
Performing Arts Center at Oglethorpe University.
As in the original play in the franchise, Greater Tuna, and
the follow-ups, Red White and Tuna and Tuna Does Vegas,
two actors carry the entire production in A Tuna Christmas.
Local actors Jill Hames and Enoch King have big shoes to
fill as the original plays were made famous by actors Jaston
Williams and Joe Sears, two of the play’s writers. The third
writer is Ed Howard.
The Williams and Sears version became so popular
nationally that Greater Tuna and A Tuna Christmas were
performed at The White House by invitations from Texan
President George H. W. Bush and first lady Barbara Bush.
Hames and King offer their own version and as Topher
Payne, director of the production, observed, “When each
actor in the production is playing 11 characters, the play is
completely transformed by their talents and strengths.”
Hames and King rise beautifully to the challenge. It would
be difficult to imagine the original actors being better. Payne
explains in his production notes, “Our fastest head-to-toe
costume change has to be completed in eight seconds—
and the script does not leave room for error. If you don’t
complete the change, the play comes to a stop—which is quite
terrifying but also incredibly motivating. It’s like a NASCAR
pit crew backstage, and it is a marvel to behold.”
The actors don’t just change costumes; they use vocal
variations and alterations in the way they move to transform
themselves completely from young to elderly, from timid and
withdrawn to loud and brash, from male to female. Although
this production features a male actor and a female actor,
both play male and female roles. Payne credits “a team of
artists just behind the walls” with making the “high-wire act”
possible.
As Georgia Ensemble Theatre’s announcement notes,
“Just two actors portray more than 20 citizens of Tuna,
making split-second costume changes in a world where the
Lion’s Club is too liberal and Patsy Cline never dies. Local
radio personalities Thurston Wheelis and Arles Struvie report
on Tuna’s yuleticle activities, including the hot competition in
the Christmas lights contest and a disaster-prone community
theater production of A Christmas Carol”
A Tuna Christmas pokes gentle and affectionate fun at
small-town Southern life—really at small-town America—
in the tradition of such classics as Steel Magnolias and A
Christmas Story. The convoluted tale of these eccentric
small town folks trying to establish their vision of a great
holiday season keep actors Hames and King hopping as they
portray such characters as Stanley Bumiller, an aspiring
taxidermist, fresh from reform school; Vera Carp, town snob
and acting leader of the Smut-Snatchers of the New Order;
Bertha Bumiller, a housewife, mother and member of the
Smut Snatchers of the New Order and Leonard Childers,
entrepreneur and radio personality on station OKOK.
A Tuna Christmas runs Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays
through Dec. 29. Conant Performing Arts Center is located
on the campus of Oglethorpe University at 4484 Peachtree
Road, Brookhaven. Tickets are availble at www.get.org, or by
calling the box office at (770) 641-1260.
