Fuddy Meers

Photo credit: Chris Ocken

BY DAVID LINDSAY-ABAIRE

DIRECTED BY KIMBERLY SENIOR

Jun 13, 2004–Jul 25, 2004

Every day Claire cheerfully tries to put together the puzzle of her life. But today she’s about to find a few missing pieces.

A lisping, ski-masked Limping Man appears out of no-where and kidnaps her. They travel to the house of her mother, Gertie, a stroke-victim with a speech-impediment who desperately tries to protect Claire from her true past which, despite the best-efforts of some people, is beginning to become clear. Add in Millet, an ex-janitor with a foul-mouthed sock puppet and Heidi, a suspicious lady-cop and the day speeds toward its bizarre conclusion.

Strawdog is happy to welcome Kimberly Senior (director of the Jeff Award-winning Knives in Hens) back to the Dog House to steer this hilarious, dark comedy.

“… the very capable young Chicago director Kimberly Senior does her considerable best to give this hybrid play a production that’s sufficiently credible that we stay with the characters throughout, and sufficiently funny that all the bizarre people on stage don’t begin to cloy. She succeeds admirably. Along with a cracking little set from Nic Dimond, Senior has the benefit of a straightforward, unflashy and unflaggingly truthful bit of work from Jennifer Avery as the lead amnesiac. There also are a variety of stellar comic turns from the likes of puppet-meister Kyle Hamman …”

— Chicago Tribune

“The actors are so convincing as the complications pile up and the absurdity burgeons that we too become pleasantly befuddled. And the show’s fine design team sometimes suggests we’re inside Claire’s murky mind, which proves an intriguing, entertaining place to be.”

— Chicago Reader