A visit to a gynecologist’s office that may or may not be under siege. How copulation might resemble the objects you might find in your attic. And the travails of a child maligned by his shallow parents, seeking May 4‑appropriate, Star-Wars-themed revenge. On Tuesday night the Regicides — the improv troupe from A Broken Umbrella Theatre Company — started ArtWalk in Westville, which returns to live, in-person, yet still social distanced activities this year.
ArtWalk has events scheduled today through Saturday. Today will feature painting a mural by artist Heather Gendron on Central Avenue from 3 to 6 p.m., and the 6‑Square Gallery art exhibition at 16 Fountain St. from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.; that exhibition will continue Thursday and Friday, May 6 and 7, from 12 to 7 p.m. and 12 to 5 p.m., respectively. On Thursday at 8 p.m. there will be a screening in Edgewood Park of Taika Waititi’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Travis Carbonella’s The Volcan Tungurahua Mural Project. Friday night at 6:30 p.m. will feature a collaborative concert between Thabisa and musicians of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, also in Edgewood Park, followed by Dooley‑O and Alisa. On Saturday ArtWalk hosts a flurry of activities beginning in the late morning, cresting in the afternoon, and ending around sundown, from a pet parade to Elm City Sounds spinning records, to open studios and galleries, to an art and artisan market, to activities for kids and a screening of the now-traditional duck race in the West River.
But first, the Regicides performed, expertly and virtually, for a full, riotous Zoom meeting of ArtWalk faithful. Manic music for accordion, tuba, and glockenspiel filled the headphones as the Regicides’ logo appeared and the troupe began to appear in multiple windows. Troupe member Matt Gaffney then explained that the troupe would re-create the interactive, audience-participation elements of the show — not just registering applause, but providing cues to the actors — by using Zoom’s chat function.
“This is live and things might go wrong!” Gaffney said. But they did not.
For the Regicides’ first act, Gaffney asked the audience to supply a list of names. The chat filled with suggestions ranging from normal (Esther) to a little unusual (Theophilos) to the outright ludicrous (Amy Apothecary).
“Can I combine names?” asked troupe member Frankie Douglass. She chose, as her character’s name, Mordecai Pencilbutt. Fellow troupe member Jes Mack chose the name Captain Pickles.
With further input from the chat, it was determined that Pencilbutt was a gynecologist and Pickles was a hostage negotiator, visiting the doctor for an exam. Collectively, riffing off one another, the troupe created a twisted portrait of Pencilbutt’s office. Large chairs were flipped over and improvised as a barricade. A little play area in the corner for kids, but one of the toys there is “very sticky.” Hand santizer. An iPhone in a plastic tub, playing jams from the 1970s. The receptionist was to be of indeterminate age and Eastern European accent and very friendly. The lighting in the room: “dim and sad.”
Quickly and hilariously, the troupe sprang into action, recreating the sense of Captain Pickles in the right pose for an examination, lit by, of all things, an oil lantern, “even though you probably won’t know what’s wrong with me,” Mack said. After a series of questions, working a bit blue as a later-night comedy sketch should, Pencilbutt was able to determine that the problem was, in a word, hygiene. Her solution: changing underwear more often.
The chat filled with applause.
Gaffney and troupe member Ruben Ortiz performed a game in which Ortiz was applying for a job — the catch being that Ortiz didn’t know what the job he was applying for was. Following a thin trail of clues Gaffney gave him, he finally arrived at the post (tiger handler) and promptly rejected it.
In keeping with the warming weather, Gaffney asked the audience to provide a list of their favorite summer activities. Choosing “swimming” from among them, the troupe then revealed that the prompt was to force the improv troupe to finish the phrase “sex with me is like swimming.” The winner, judging from the laughter from fellow Regicides and the audience in the chat, was troupe member Lou Mangini, who said: “Sex with me is like swimming: I know how to do it a few different ways but I’m only good at one.”
A final act involved several of the Regicides creating the story of a child borne by a surrogate mother to a couple who suddenly worries, in comedy-skit shallow mode, that the baby might be unsightly. What followed was a technical Zoom marvel in which the troupe improvised the life of the baby, growing from childhood to adolescence to adulthood, in the styles of different movie genres, from Communist propaganda to 1950s educational video.
When the child, now fully grown, sought revenge, a Western that morphed into a Star Wars movie. Gaffney had warned that the insanely lucrative SF franchise might be involved, and the Regicides did not disappoint.
As the young man faced an early demise in a lightsaber duel and the parents came to mourn, Mack and Ortiz burst into song, in the style of a movie musical.
As the hour drew to a close and the chat swarmed with applause, the Regicides unabashedly plugged the rest of Artwalk. One might say “shamelessly,” but after a virtual ArtWalk last year that had people confined to their homes, there was nothing shameful about celebrating the prospect of getting together in person, safely and freely.
Visit Westville Artwalk 2021’s website for a full schedule of events.
