CALEdare: Princess Bride
by Mark Mardon, Bay Area Reporter 12/04, ebar.com
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Last Saturday night at the Dark Room, a tiny hole of a theater in the Mission, a wonderful group of players put on Impossible Production’s Princess Bride—the Play, inspired by the classic tale of high adventure and true romance by William Goldman. They were magnificent. Why anyone would go to see gorgeous but inaccessible Jude Law on screen this coming January when they can go see gorgeous, accessible, and brilliantly talented Josh Lenn live in the flesh, up close in an intimate setting, in the role of our hero, Westley—well, pretty much anyone in the Dark Room audience could tell you: Josh Lenn alone, for the mere $15 price of the theater seat, is a far, far better bargain than Law for $8.50, plus you get to see Lenn in fetching black tights for much of the play!

A leading man is no better than the company he keeps, and fortunately Lenn was part of the best ensemble imaginable! Lenn’s leading lady, Nancy Bower as Buttercup, was every bit as funny and beautiful as Julia Roberts, maybe even more talented, and yet there she was, right in our faces, making us break up in hysterics and marveling at her ability to look simultaneously blousy and regal.

I came to this play a Princess Bride virgin, never having read the story or seen the movie, and the show brought me a childhood rush. Without other faces or voices to associate with the fairy tale of pirates, princesses, castles and sailing ships, I will now forever link the characters with the very memorable Dark Room cast, with shining performances by everyone, including the chisel-faced John P. Filgas as a delightfully vile Prince Humperdinck; the superbly villainous Seanetta as Vizzini the Sicilian, with his spitting, sputtering, and highly mobile facial antics; the amazingly huge, completely lovable, immensely watchable Jim Fourniadis as Fezzik the giant, the engaging storytelling manner of the Don Wood as Grandfather; and my personal favorite—because I was dazzled by his charming character’s Johnny Depp-like pirate smile, accent, bravado and swordsmanship—Cameron Eng as Inigo the fencer.

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