Mayflies on a frantic first date.
The true fate of the Lindbergh baby.
What to do when you’re stuck in a Philadelphia (besides be glad it’s not a Cleveland, of course).
These are just some of the tricky topics tackled in David Ives’ comedic cornucopia “All in the Timing,” which premiered to much acclaim in 1993 and is now being revived by Bainbridge Island’s Swinging Hammer Productions for this year’s Winter One Act Festival at Bainbridge Performing Arts.
“All in the Timing” ran off-Broadway for more than 600 performances and won an Outer Critics Circle Playwriting Award. In the 1995-96 season, it was the most performed play in the entire country — except for the works of Shakespeare.
It features six of the best known short plays by Ives — also known for “Venus in Fur” and “The School for Lies” — including, “Time Flies,” “Words, Words, Words,” “The Mystery at Twicknam Vicarage,” “The Philadelphia,” “Mere Mortals” and “Variations on the Death of Trotsky.”
Each play is helmed by a different director: Ann Ellis, Lee Ann Hittenberger, Kristi Jacobson, Jim Patrick or Jonathan Shue; and the cast is comprised of both returning and new actors, including: Rob Burke, Bob Downing, Andrew Opatkiewicz, Heidi Cheyenne, Gary Fetterplace, Matt Eldridge, Aaron Moore, Ali Budge, Liz Ellis, Lincoln Grismer, Colton Sullivan, Barbi-Jo Smith and more.
This production is the sixth annual Winter One Act Festival, which was previously presented by Dinah Manoff and the Northwest Actors Lab. Swinging Hammer Productions debuted on the regional theater scene last year with its version of “American Buffalo” at Rolling Bay Hall in May. Founder Tom Challinor, formerly director of the BPA Shakespeare Society, said he was excited to bring the group’s second show to the BPA stage.
“BPA has long been a generous supporter of local theatre groups,” he said. “And we are delighted to present ‘All in the Timing’ there.
“I love David Ives and I wanted to do it,” he added. “And when Dinah, who had been doing the One Acts, decided to step back, I knew the slot was open so I just applied to BPA.”
Ives’ concise comedic work is the perfect source material for the festival format, Challinor said, adding that what he hopes to do through Swinging Hammer Productions is to offer island audiences something both fun and challenging.
“It has to do more with adult theater and with a little bit of risk,” he explained. “There’s some risk in this. There’s risk in what the actors are doing [and] the kind of commitment it takes to say, ‘I’m going to be a Mayfly.’”
Cast and crew agreed, saying this playful six pack of plays really does have something for everyone: wordplay, sarcasm, situational humor, existential parables, Kafkaesque conversations — and a lot of fun.
Tim Tully, who plays one of three blue-collar construction workers in “Mere Mortals” who, over their lunch break, discuss how they are, in fact, the Lindbergh baby, the son of Czar Nicholas II of Russia and the reincarnation of Marie Antoinette, respectively, said he was unfamiliar with Ives’ work when he saw the call to audition. He read up and quickly decided he wanted in.
“I think this is a good evening because the plays all have a certain tenor to them,” Tully said. “As the evening progresses you kind of get used to what [Ives’] style is.
“You can really concentrate on the characters,” he added, saying that “Mere Mortals” specifically, as it features so little movement — they are, after all, eating lunch on a girder 50 stories up — was an interesting acting challenge.
Karen Hauser, the production’s stage captain for whom this show is a Bainbridge theater debut, said the selection of stories and their varying lengths ensures everyone in the audience will stay engaged.
“I think it’s great,” she said. “It’s all the same author — the same playwright — so there’s a similarity, but they’re very different, I think.”
Shows begin at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 22 and Saturday, Jan. 23. There will be a matinee at 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 24.
Tickets, $20 adults and $15 for seniors, military, teachers and students, can be purchased online at www.bainbridgeperformingarts.org, by calling the box office at 206-842-8569, or in person at BPA. Box office hours are 1 to 4 p.m. Wednesday to Friday and one hour prior to each performance.
Winter One Acts
What: Swinging Hammer Productions presents the work of David Ives for its annual Winter One Acts.
When: Shows begin at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 22 and Saturday, Jan. 23. There will also be a matinee at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 24.
Where: Bainbridge Performing Arts (200 Madison Ave. North).
Admission: Tickets are $20 each for adults and $15 each for seniors, military, teachers and students.
