Green Town
consists of three short plays set in a small Midwestern town on the eve
of the Great Depression. Act 1 (“Any Friend of Nicholas Nickleby
is a Friend of Mine”) follows adolescent Ralph Spaulding, who
senses something unusual coming to his grandmother’s boarding
house. Abandoning former idol Mr. Wyneski, the town barber, for new
boarder Mr. Dickens, Ralph changes his name to Pip and helps transcribe
“A Tale of Two Cities.” Though the barber cries fraud,
Green Town’s librarian warms to the courtly, Victorian-clad
stranger. Act 2 (“Device Out of Time”) is the story of
99-year-old Col. Freeleigh who recounts his past wartime battles to two
boys. (They called him a time machine.) In Act 3 (“The Genuine
Homemade Truly Egyptian Mummy”), a father and son treat Green
Town to an ersatz Egyptian mummy. (No animatronic magic here;
it’s made of papier-mâché.) [from an LA Times review, mostly.]
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