Portrait co-stars in Lakeside Players’ comedy/thriller

LAKEVILLE, PA — The Lakeside Players’ fall production, “Better Half Dead,” by Joan Torres, opens Friday, October 21 at their regular venue, Community Hall on Route 590. But the drama surrounding the production of this twisty comedy/thriller began unfolding long before The Lakeside Players started rehearsals last month in Lakeville.

“We’ve had this play on the shelf for at least five years,” Tony Schwartz, co-founder of the theater company said. “But we wanted to be sure our actors—and our audiences—were ready for it.”

The intricate plot of “Better Half Dead,” a story that lampoons sacred cows including art, money, marriage and psychiatry, centers around a looming abstract painting that commands so much attention and makes so many entrances and exits it’s like another character in the play. Given its importance, Schwartz and his co-founder, Marylou Ambrose, followed the directions in the play book and wrote for a photographic copy of the painting, “The Portrait of Rena,” from a company in Texas.

When they didn’t get an answer for six weeks, they had to do some detective work to locate the owner of the painting, Andrew B. Harris, a theater professor at the University of North Texas. Apparently he had moved and never received their request. After they finally located him, Harris said copies of the painting were no longer available, but he would be willing to loan Lakeside the original.

One hitch: the painting had an eight-inch tear in the middle. So Ambrose and Schwartz asked their friend Juan Espino, owner of the Looking Glass Art Gallery in Hawley, to repair the tear in the painting. Ioannis Glykokokalos, another artist friend who owns Natural Wood Frames Gallery in Honesdale, replaced the painting on the stretchers. Now the portrait—whose style Ambrose describes as “Picasso on LSD”—is finally ready to take the stage with the other players.

Halfway through rehearsals, the Lakeside cast is still having trouble keeping a straight face. “The play is so funny, and so many of the lines have double meanings, we’ll be on stage rehearsing and it’ll suddenly come to us what that line really means,” Mrs. Ambrose said. “The play is just full of surprises.”

Performances will be October 21, 22, 28, 29 and November 4, 5, and 6. Friday and Saturday shows are at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday matinee (November 6 only) is at 3 p.m. Tickets are $12; $6 for students with ID. Group discounts are available.

For more information call 570/226-6207.