Comedy suspense abounds as Black Swamp Players bring ‘Mimi’s Famous Company’ to life – BG Independent News
By David Dupont
BG Independent News
Yes, Mimi, you look beautiful, excuse me, great, in this form-fitting silver sequin dress. Perfect, some would say.
We know you expect nothing less than perfection and a complement to your perfection as a hunter.
She ostensibly promises the audience that they will learn by the end of the play what it is to see and understand perfection. Then she leaves the stage to let her story unfold.
By the time, about 50 minutes later, she says goodbye, she’s wearing that same sparkly dress, and we understand all too well the price of perfection.
The one-act comedy thriller “Mimi’s Famous Company,” written by Nina Wright and directed by Allie Sanders, is staged by the Black Swamp Players in the air-conditioned Oak Street Theater, opening Friday at 8 p.m. The show continues on June 18 and 24. , and on June 25 at 8 p.m. with Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. on June 19 and 26. Visit blackswampplayers.org for tickets. Wright will attend performances on June 17 and 24 and will answer questions after the play.
Mimi (Emily Mather) had her desire for perfection instilled by her mother Sheila (Samantha Heater).
From the moment she was just a baby in her arms, she was armed with the knowledge that her mother was the perfect mother and she was the perfect child, and that the rest of the world, especially the father from Mimi, be damned.
This means that Mimi will go to an academy for the gifted and talented. This means that she will become a lawyer despite her interest in drawing and acting.
Mimi’s favorite movie is “All About Eve”. She identifies with the film’s sinister understudy. Mimi sees her as ambitious. She sees her as a role model.
Never mind being a helicopter mom, Sheila is a fighter jet mom. It’s hair-triggered and susceptible to going ballistic at the slightest hint of resistance. She reminds the math teacher who dares to give her daughter two Cs that she knows the mayor.
When Mimi takes matters into her own hands and asks for a chance to do extra credit to raise her grade to an A to help her get into charter school, she is much calmer and even charming. Still, the teacher (Tiffany Scarola) says it’s mathematically impossible for her to get her grade to an A. Mimi understands and even gives her a card, and a hand-drawn card, that announces she’s from Mimi’s famous card company, like Hallmark only better.
These cards appear throughout the game, and when they do, you know Mimi will get what she wants.
It doesn’t matter if the recipient is her father (Steve Bishop) who is reluctant to let her live in New York with him, or his actress wife Lissa (Hali Malecki) who refuses to leave the house during Mimi’s visit. Or his mother’s Digger (Chase Greenlee) toy.
In the end, Mimi has a card ready for the guy who picks her up for a date in case he doesn’t really appreciate her perfection.
“Mimi’s Famous Company” is the first winner of Telling Stories, the Black Swamp Players writing competition. The debut of “Mimi” was delayed by the pandemic. I’m sure the author was glad her character didn’t come in so well because Mimi would stop at nothing to win.
