spies

Strange and silly spycraft in MCP ‘Best Laid Plans’

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By John Lyle Belden

It can be frustrating, while relaxing in Jamaica working on your next book, when the plots of your spy novels start coming true.

This is the essence of the espionage-themed farce “The Best Laid Plans” by Fred Carmichael, presented by Mud Creek Players, directed by Collin Moore.

Ada Westbrook (Molly Kraus) had tired of writing children’s books and, realizing that spy stories were like fairy tales with guns and sex, drew from her late husband’s work with the U.S. State Department to become “America’s Ian Fleming,” with titles such as “The Seductive Spy.” Her editor and personal assistant Francis Daniels (Lexi Gray) is just glad to no longer proofread stories about silly animals, looking forward to her working vacation with Ada in their beachside island home.

A rather nosy neighbor, Phoebe (Rosemary Meagher) appears, claiming to know one of Ada’s friends, gaining an invitation to come over later for cocktails. Also invited is one of Ada’s husband’s former colleagues Hubert (Ronan Marra), whose son Guy (Matthew Ball) is dating her granddaughter Gail (Lane Fiorini) – they are on their way as well.

Meanwhile, a rather pushy man (Kevin Smith) comes in claiming to work for The Government, saying due to her State Department ties, Ada has been chosen as an intermediary to receive The Plans in an exchange that prevents Them from stealing these threats to national security. She is only given the Swiss bank book to be exchanged, as well as a flowery password exchange, before this Mr. Dike (pronounced “deek”) slips out to his boat, which promptly blows up.

From here, things get complicated, strange – and hilarious.

A very eager Russian-sounding agent, Goralsky (Lark Green), arrives with the right password but apparently dies before completing the exchange.

Then, Phoebe and her husband Vincent (Rob Kent) arrive and – you remember that TV show “The Americans”? These two didn’t do as well in Russian infiltrator school. Also, there’s another agent, Michael (Connor Phelan), who is apparently quickly dispatched.

And Hubert keeps talking to his shoe.

On top of this, Gail and Guy make their own macabre discovery, and deal with it as best they can (badly).

From all this we get constantly-moving bodies that often won’t stay dead, secret identities, repeated failure to find the titular Plans, clever Ada being underestimated, and Francis just needing another drink. For stage buffs, with the use of a window-seat as a hiding place, there are even a couple of references to “Arsenic and Old Lace.”

Kraus thrives playing Ada as the center of attention, while Gray is so cool as the PA who has nearly seen it all, I wondered if Lexi was the secret spymaster. Fiorini and Ball work Gail and Guy’s misunderstandings of the plot into the mix for maximum effect. The others are a nifty mash-up of 007, Get Smart, and Boris & Natasha archetypes working well in this variant of the “slamming door” farce.

For funny with a bit of firepower – and cleverly hidden secrets – “The Best Laid Plans” plays tonight and Sunday (as this posts), July 26-27, as well as July 31-Aug. 2 at the Mud Creek Barn, 9740 E. 86th St., Indianapolis. Get tickets at mudcreekplayers.org.

Tensions of modern espionage play out in IRT’s ‘Miranda’

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By John Lyle Belden

Meet Susanna Jones, known to some as Dana Sanders, and to her mother as “Miranda,” in the spy thriller by that name by Indiana Repertory Theatre playwright in residence James Still on the IRT upper stage through April 23.

An offstage character in Still’s “The House that Jack Built” (which it is not necessary to have seen), Miranda was said to be working overseas for IKEA. But actually, the appropriate letters are CIA.

As Susanna, Miranda (played by Jennifer Coombs) has as her cover an international program teaching Shakespeare to kids in Adan, Yemen. The ancient city actually sits in a dormant volcano, an excellent symbol of the growing tension of the play.

She works with and reports to John (Torrey Hanson), an old hand brought out of retirement for this very sensitive mission. No agent can get close to the men plotting local, regional and global terrorism, but Susanna can talk to one of the few female doctors, Dr. Al-Aghari (Arya Daire), as by religious law only women can touch women, and thus she treats local wives – who whisper secrets to her.

Meanwhile, only one young student, Shahid (Ninos Baba) has shown up to learn “Othello” (with his own ideas about which character is more Yemeni, which one more American). And a supervisor (Mary Beth Fisher) is not pleased that Miranda was inadvertently contacted by someone as her “Dana” alias the year before in Jordan.

This sets up a web of who-can-trust-who that draws the audience in, as our only reliable narrator is the title character (or is she?). A chance meeting at a café suddenly has broader meaning and context. Why do lights dim when they do? Where do characters go when they leave our sight? The Bard’s words, “I am not what I am,” haunt every scene.

Miranda, through Coombs performance, gives us far more of herself than she shows to the other characters. We see her addicted to the spy game, but also how it has affected her – “Bin Laden still shows up in my dreams,” she laments to her partner.

Daire garners our sympathy as a woman in a harsh but familiar world, torn between conflicting loyalties and cultures, while concerned for her own family’s survival. “Certainty is an American luxury,” the doctor tells Susanna.

Hanson and Fisher are also solid. Baba as Shahid gives us a unique perspective, reminding us that this is more than an American story.

The play is set in 2014, near a recent turning point in Yemen’s ongoing conflicts, giving the narrative freshness and urgency. Still did extensive research and interviews with people in the know, so that he could – as one character put it – “lie truthfully.”

No cloak and dagger are needed for you to find “Miranda” – the IRT is at 140 W. Washington St., near Circle Centre; call 317-635-5252 or visit www.irtlive.com.

John L. Belden is also Associate Editor and A&E editor of The Eagle (formerly The Word), the Indianapolis-based Midwest LGBTQ news source, which ran a story on this play in the April 1 edition, and will have an edited version of this review in the April 15 edition.