THE RESURRECTIONISTS by Ross Hammond (House of Rebels Theatre). At the Randolph Theatre. July 10 at 8:15 pm, July 12 at noon, July 14 at 9:15 pm, July 15 at 1:45 pm. See listing. Rating: NNN
An unusual premise gets stretched to its limit in this witty dark-comedy-meets-19th-century period piece.
Anthony Di Feo and Ross Hammond play a pair of disgraced medical-students-turned-grave-robbers who end up in over their heads over the course of a night in a barn in Northern Ontario. The characters rely on classic comedy interplay ones a naive farm boy with a heart of gold, while the other is a morally loose huckster until farce takes over when the cadaver they steal turns out to be not so dead.
The dizzying pace of shifting allegiances, seductions and double and triple crosses sometimes causes confusion, especially as Laura Harding and Olivia Winstons rapid-fire line readings of Hammonds dense script occasionally get drowned out by atmospheric sound effects.
Character motivation becomes hard to follow as it speeds to its climax, but its funny enough that you can just focus on the jokes.
