Two hapless, small-time crooks hit the roads of South Carolina in search of their next “big” score in T-Bone n Weasel. John Klein’s comedy is the latest theatrical presentation at The 222 in Healdsburg and concludes its short run with three performances through April 5.
Pals T-Bone (Aldo Billingslea) and Weasel (Timothy Roy Redmond) are tooling around in a stolen Buick when they hit upon the idea of holding up a liquor store. It’s bad enough when they enter the store to find a rifle-toting owner (Sylvia Burboeck) behind the counter manning a cash register that won’t open, but then Weasel discovers the owner is an old neighbor of his. Their robbery plan goes out the door along with a bottle of Swiss brandy that cost them all the cash they had on hand. They’d leave but for the fact their Buick’s fanbelt has busted.
So it’s off to a used car lot, a ravine, a church basement, a farm, a diner, a local politico’s home, a penitentiary and a construction site before they’re back on the road again. All the people they meet along the way—a shady used-car salesman, a preacher, a homeless man, a sexually insatiable female farmer, a redneck sheriff and a local doctor with political aspirations who professes to hate poverty but actually hates poor people—are played by Burboeck.
Klein’s script is slight and the humor is almost completely based on Southern stereotypes, but it is amusing. Very faint echoes of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men resonate as Billinglea’s T-Bone plays George to Redmond’s Lenny.
Issues of poverty, political opportunism and especially racism are wrapped in humor in this typical bare-bones 222 production. The “set” consists of three chairs and a backdrop behind which Burboeck does multiple quick changes. That means it’s up to the cast to convey a sense of place and time, and director Jeff Bracco has three top talents at work here.
Billingslea shows there’s more to T-Bone than just being a career criminal, and a discussion with a prison chaplain hints at what might have led him there. Redmond brings a sweetness and naivete to Weasel that gives him more depth than a standard dunce. He never sees his friend’s color and is horrified by those who do. Burboeck brings significant comedic chops to her various roles.
It’s worth taking a ride with T-Bone n Weasel.
‘T-Bone n Weasel’ runs through April 5 at The 222, 222 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg. Fri, 7pm; Sun, 2pm and 7pm. $45-$105. Students free with ID. 707.473.9152. the222.org
