THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 25, 1995 TAG: 9510250482
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
TYPE: Theater Review
SOURCE: BY FRANK ROBERTS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
You might be a redneck, if: The residents of ``Greater Tuna'' remind you of your family and friends.
These days, Jeff Foxworthy has made redneckism funny and semi-respectable, but three guys beat him to the punch with some punchy characters in a play that centers on a Texas town radio station.
In 1982, Joe Sears, Jaston Williams and Ed Howard wrote ``Greater Tuna,'' designed to make the audience enjoy and the cast work like people possessed.
Tom Cherry and Frank Parrish, each portraying 10 characters, are the worker bees in the Encore Theatre production that continues Friday and Saturday.
Not only do they constantly change voices, clothes and personalities - but they also do all that for 2 1/2 hours. And they do it well.
They never let up, nor does the laughter or applause.
Cherry and Parrish are skilled local stage veterans who couldn't give a bad performance if they were paid to.
They are completely natural. In ``Greater Tuna,'' with its myriad mad characters, naturalness is not easy.
Their main characters are Thurston Wheelis and Arles Struvie, who work night and day at OKKK in Greater Tuna. It's redneck radio with 30-second newscasts, minute-long songs and daylong announcements and guest spots.
Three of the guests are the dysfunctional Bumiller family young people - Jody, Stanley and Charlene played by Parrish, Parrish and Parrish.
Charlene, an awkward teenager whose life is ruined because she did not become a cheerleader, is the funniest portrayal.
Every portrayal in this nutty production is greatly aided by wonderful, appropriate wardrobe and wig selections.
A gray wig goes with Parrish's senior citizen, Vera Carp, who shines as she offers a Spanish lesson that no self-respecting Spanish-speaking person would recognize.
Carp's craziest caper has her reciting ``nasty'' words that she and the Smut Snatchers of the New Order feel will poison children's minds. They want those words dropped from every Funk and Wagnalls.
Another Cherry gem is Sheriff Givens, sort-of a cracker-mean Barney Fife.
Cherry also has a brilliant senior portrayal, Pearl Burras, whose lines about a dog kill are tasteless and hilarious. Check your mood.
The outstanding character in Cherry's lineup is the Rev. Spikes, offering a hilarious eulogy for a deceased judge - a eulogy filled with every cliche known to Thesaurus.
And there is the Cherry interpretation of a strutting Klansman - Klan 249 - Elmer Watkins, who looks at you steely-eyed while mixing flag-waving with invective.
This absolutely bizarre, very funny play is satire at its best as it mocks characters that are familiar to most of us. ILLUSTRATION: THEATER REVIEW
WHAT: The Encore Theatre Co. presents ``Greater Tuna.''
WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday, Saturday.
WHERE: Main Street Stage, Pasquotank Arts Building, Elizabeth
City.
by CNB