CCPA's 'The Queen of Bingo' is a winner

The cast of "The Queen of Bingo" prepares for the Community Council on the Performing Arts. The show opens Thursday, April 14 at 8 p.m. Additional performances are slated for April 15-16, at 8 p.m., and on Sunday, April 17, at 2 p.m.

Now, how do I phrase this? I've been a fan of both Edi Gragg and Linda Davidson since my family first moved to Nevada and saw them on stage, at the old Welty's Cow Palace ... in, let me see, '73. And, mind you, I mean 1973, not 1873. In my own memory, they stand, as a theatrical team, a little like Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, or, on a higher plane, the Redgrave sisters. Well, anyway, you catch my drift. They're the best.

And now, sponsored by Hoffman Financial Resources, directed by Tammy Algiere, and helped by Jane Ann Hancock, as the irrepressible if somewhat manic Sister Francis McKenzie Muldoon, and the smooth-voiced Kenny Jones, as the Bingo caller, Ms Gragg and Ms Davidson play Sis and Babe, respectively, in Jeanne Michels's and Phyllis Murphy's comedy "The Queen of Bingo."

Originally presented by Chicago's Theater a Go-Go, Inc., this comedy lasts less than two hours, but in that time the two sisters, seated beside each other in "the hallway of the basement of St. Joseph's Catholic School" (Is that a dismal setting, or what?) and engaged somewhat lackadaisically in their individual bingo games, go hot and heavy on unseen players of the Bingo game, and, in Babe's case, on herself.

For Babe, you see, is hyper-conscious of her weight problem, and her resulting unhappiness comes pouring out in torrential self-abuse. It's at this point, it seems to me, that both Edi Gragg and Linda Davidson, but especially the latter, stop playing roles and actually become the two sisters. They dish the dirt, giggle hilariously, and sometimes secretly abuse the other Bingo players, all the while hoping tonight will be their lucky night. All in all, it's mighty impressive, and you don't know whether to laugh hysterically or weep. At the end of the performance, you want to rush up and offer Davidson a candybar to replenish her severely depleted blood sugar supply.

It's an interesting, uproarious, moving play. Sometimes it sounds like "Nunsense," sometimes like "Our Town," sometimes like a combination of the two, sometimes like nothing else at all. Whatever, it's well worth seeing. And while you enjoy the funniness/melodrama playing out before you, I ask you to consider this: how many other towns the size of Nevada, Mo., have a dedicated group like CCPA, a theater like the Fox, and, most important, a group of home-grown actors with the kind of acting chops you can see here in Nevada? All of us Nevadans ought to be darn grateful.

Incidentally, the program for "The Queen of Bingo", by Mike Seitz, is itself a classy objet d'arte, worth keeping, so don't toss it in the trash!

You can see "The Queen of Bingo", at the Fox Playhouse, 110 S. Main St., on Thursday, April 14, Friday, April 15 (Tax Day, Yikes!), Saturday, April 16, at 8 p.m, and on Sunday, April 17, at 2 p.m.

Hey, you deserve a break in your routine. Enjoy a live play!