The Annex Theater in the Station North Arts District is a persistent little gem that has all the trappings of a way-off Broadway theater, complete with scurrying cats, a patchwork collection of well-worn couches, the smell of Natty Boh and cigarettes and an unquenchable vibrancy that you can feel resonating from the sketchy asylumish hallway. As you walk into the dark, subterranean nook, it feels packed with about 80 people. It’s the real thing.
Last Friday and Saturday, we were treated to a collection of short plays based on the cartoons of Hanna-Barbera. The crowd — consisting of moms, with pleasantly boisterous children, to MICA students to perhaps the guy you work with who heard about this wacky event on WYPR — was quite receptive, picking up and putting up with a variety of interpretations. The whole production took about an hour, give or take a few quick intermissions and the short video by Mark Brown, who offered up a surrealist transition into the second half of the show.
Some of the sketches stuck closely to the original scripts, like Justin Durel’s hilarious a cappella performance as Tom from “Tom and Jerry.” The sketch, “Quiet Please (A Tom and Jerry play),” was a slapstick escapade with wonderfully executed physical comedy and suspense-laden lighting maneuvers, ultimately ending with a pie in Tom’s face, always a hit. Other sketches dove into more political territory. The Smurf skit, called “Shmurph Election ’08,” had actors and actresses smoke, drink, cuss and act about as un-Smurf like as one could imagine, throwing in some Barack Obama-oriented political banter between shock tactics.
The costumes and props, considering the apparent small budget and limited resources, were top-notch and at times phenomenal. “Space Ghost” received uproarious applause at its climax when a monster the size of a Neon took the stage to challenge our hero Space Ghost in a physical showdown. Even adults shivered in their seats at the sight of the gargantuan creature manned by multiple stage hands. Yet the smaller props, like the meticulously-crafted Zorak from the same skit and the simulation of an explosion, using puffy cloud cutouts and some elbow grease, in the “Tom and Jerry” sketch, proved to be as effective in garnering positive reactions from the crowd.
The performance of Snagglepuss, played by local thespian /musician, Andy Abelow, was one of the standout deliveries of the night, and was enhanced even more with the help of a costume that transformed Abelow into a visuallyconvincing lovelorn cat.
The master of ceremonies was Evan Moritz, who organized the event and is a founding member of The Annex Theater. He was pleased that about 80 people attended each night. “It’s nice to see that people in Baltimore support that aspect of the arts,” he said. “It makes me feel like the art scene in Baltimore is more than just music.”
For more info on upcoming events at The Annex Theater, go to myspace.com/copycatannex
