Canus Lunis Balloonis
A lot of great plays and memorable productions have come out of this testosteronic tradition. But a lot of weak scripts and just plain awful shows have been given a pass over the years just because their strong Chicago-style dialogue or the cast’s deep-dish acting fooled critics and audiences into thinking they were watching something substantial. Which brings us to A Red Orchid Theatre’s Canus Lunis Balloonis, an all-male show that leans heavily on guy-play traditions to give the first act the appearance of depth and to try to cover up the enormously flawed second act.
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The second act begins as a grim version of the first, with the same knuckleheads, who no longer seem so charming, fighting over how they’re going to dispose of the body and who’s going to take the rap. Stolte must have realized that this was a beastly way to end a play that begins in such high spirits, so he tacks on a 30-minute dream sequence that denies the comic naturalism of the first half of the play yet doesn’t really wrap things up.
