Under Professor Sandra Forman’s zesty direction, the student actors turn the first hour of this 2002 script into rattling good spit-and-spirit theater. The 95-minute work is by Theresa Rebeck and Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros.
It’s just post-9/11. Seven glitterati (some lampooning real world celebs) gather over gourmet grub prepared by domestic diva Suzie (Katie Kershaw). Back stories clash with present-tense politics in whiplash dialogue among a right-wing pop novelist (Johnny Kyle Cook), an effete English intellectual (Spenser Smith), a Westernized Muslim (Kyle Imbronyev), a vegan animal activist (Cindy Head), a black poet-academic (Jyreika Guest) and a hero fireman (Mike Meadors).
Then an Islamic terrorist (Matthew Kincaid) enters spraying accusations, and the whole enterprise goes to hell.
Omnium Gatherum continues at Northern Kentucky University through April 3 in repertory with Top Girls. Read Tom McElfresh's review and get showtimes and buy tickets here.
