‘Tuna’ yet another tasty treat from Heritage

Clearly, “Red, White and Tuna,” which opened in the Helms on Tuesday, is one of them. The tongue-in-cheek show is a successor to two other “Tuna” expeditions into silliness, and it’s just that - silly, and fun - with a little bit of social commentary sneaked in.

Heritage Theater Festival’s current excursion into Tuna, the third-smallest town in Texas, runs a mite long at over two and a half-hours, but it’s funny, especially considering that more than 40 parts are played by just two men whose speedy costume changes would put Superman to shame. There’s good reason for the dressers to share the curtain call.

Those familiar with the two earlier “Tuna” shows will recognize the various characters, but recognition isn’t necessary to laugh at this motley collection of Tuna townspeople, including a misinformed animal rights activist, a rabidly conservative townswoman who calls all of her maids Lupe, a couple of hippie women, a sexually active grandmother, a man who’s been abducted by a UFO and a sculptor who arranges and spray-paints taxidermy-stuffed animals.

These are not normal people. They are funny people, and the two actors in this show do an amazing job of switching not just costumes but whole characters. Evan Bridenstine and John Paul Scheidler share all of the characters, and both are amazingly effective and even believable as some of the Tuna townspeople, no matter how outrageous.

In fact, at the end of the show, when Scheidler switches characters to male from female for the final time, there is a vague sense that he’s a female playing a male, even though the brain knows otherwise.

He and Bridenstine never lose the humor but never forget they’re playing characters, and switching roles at top speed doesn’t dilute that. Scheidler is quite moving as the sculptor, Bridenstine very funny as the an engaged woman of a certain age. Some characters are stronger for the actors than others, but they pretty much all work, and these two have managed to show clear relationships between characters as well as individual people.

Learning to switch characters midstream is a technique learned in many acting classes, but it takes skilled actors to do it well, and these two do it well.

Director Bob Chapel has done a fine job with this. Some “Tuna” productions have the actors do all of the costume changes on stage, which can add to the hilarity, but Chapel has chosen not to go there except at the end of the show. This gives his actors the chance to really play their parts, even if briefly.

Mickie Marie’s lighting plays a crucial part in the character switches, and generally works invisibly but effectively. Sound design is important here, too, and Richard Sprecker’s done an exceptional job with it.

Dorothy Smith had her work as costume designer cut out for her, creating dozens of costumes that had to be switched in the blink of an eye.

We’ve come to expect lightweight shows in the Helms, and this is that, designed for laughter. But it does run long for a Helms show, and the script, which according to the program is still under construction some ten years after it started, still could use a little judicious editing.

Even so, though it may not be for everybody, the show is great fun whether or not you’re a fan of the “Tuna” series