Two Comedies

Last night I saw performances of two comedies by at the Chicago Actors Studio. The students who performed the comedies were uniformly professional. While I enjoyed both one act plays, "Lovers and Other strangers" and "F.M.", the second was my favorite.
The play, "F.M.", takes place in a creative writing class, where a rather prim teacher is at first appalled and then awed by the earthly brilliance of one of her pupils, a whiskey-guzzling, dirty-mouthed rough diamond whose primitive genius puts his dilettante classmates to shame. The characterization was impressive with Maryanne Leach, in the role of the teacher, providing an orderly center for the other characters as she held in her feelings except for a couple of explosive moments of pounding on her desk. The character of Buford Bullough, played well by Kyle Sing, was the catalyst for much of the action. Kyle managed to demonstrate almost multiple personalities as he narrated his story of incest and intrigue for the others. The directions by Edward Dennis Fogell was great and the interaction between all the actors in this very funny comedy was electric. It kept me in laughter except for the moments of wonder at the amazing content of Buford's story. The evening was a delight that included sharing laughter with some friends who with me enjoyed the two comedies.