Professional theater comes to Indian Head Black Box

Friday, May 16, 2008

Doug Simon, Bud’s best friend, is 30 and lives in a studio apartment above an incredibly loud pet store. Doug had a cat, and then it died.

Together, these two enthusiastic writers and actors bring you the minimalist ‘‘Gutenberg!, The Musical!” When it is time to go into a scene, ‘‘Doug” will usually look up at the roof of the Black Box Theatre in Indian Head and say it is made of ‘‘dirt and thatch.”

Seeking a Hollywood contract, this is their ambitious tribute to Johann Gutenberg, who invented the printing press in 1450 (close enough). ‘‘It’s pretty scary trying to put the most important moment into history,” Doug admits to the audience. Apparently their Google search only provided ‘‘scant” information. Rather than give up, or perhaps try out Nicolaus Copernicus, the duo decided to approach Gutenberg through the lens of historical fiction — ‘‘history that’s true.”

The set is ‘‘Bud,” ‘‘Doug,” a fold out table with hats, two cardboard boxes, a stuffed cat, and Charles Johnson on keyboards. When Bud (Andrew Lloyd Baughman) and Doug (Matt Baughman) snap out of their real selves and enter scenes jam-packed with the myriad characters they portray, they go to the table at the back of the stage and pick up a red and white, mesh baseball cap with ‘‘Helvetica” or ‘‘Drunk #1” or ‘‘Drunk #2” written on the front in black marker. Other characters include ‘‘Young Monk,” ‘‘Beef Fat Trimmer,” and ‘‘Woman.”

‘‘Gutenberg! The Musical!” a production by the Washington, D.C.-based Landless Theatre Company, was written by Scott Brown and Anthony King, and directed by John Sadowsky. Starring two seasoned actors who play the less-than-average ‘‘Bud” and ‘‘Doug,” who in turn play a highly illiterate bunch ranging from an evil monk who can belt out gospels to an anti-Semitic ‘‘Flower Girl,” this highly comedic musical makes fun of just about everything. Absolutely nothing about it is serious.

According to the history book of ‘‘Bud” and ‘‘Doug,” Gutenberg invents a printing press — and does so more or less instantly — because he is so angry that ‘‘nobody can read.” His wine-pressing assistant, ‘‘Helvetica,” appropriately named after a font, sings in her dramatic ballad, ‘‘For I am too obtuse, too dumb to understand a thing but this simple juice.” Gutenberg makes the printing press out of his wine press, the cardboard box in which ‘‘Helvetica” spends hours stomping on grapes. Maybe this was not how it really happened, or maybe it was: Gutenberg, they note, did have a background of ‘‘pressing things.”

Gutenberg’s ego becomes so inflated by his achievement that he fails to even notice that the ‘‘Monk” wants to sabotage his efforts. And when he drunkenly professes his love for ‘‘Helvetica,” he will not even allow her to her confess that ‘‘Monk” has tricked her into stomping the press to bits.

With only about 10 feet of separation between the audience and the performers, the affable ‘‘Bud” and ‘‘Doug” pursue a rather honest relationship with those of us in the seats. Rather than do an intermission they only take a short break to prevent audience members from leaving at intermission and not coming back, a problem they say ruined their debut production, which had something to do with Steven King.

If ‘‘Bud” and ‘‘Doug” were real actors instead of characters, count me in among the first to bolt. But the Baughmans, brothers in real life, switching so seamlessly between hats, keep the laughter going with an artfully awful fusion of singing and dancing and acting.