Somers Village Players’ “Don’t Drink the Water” is Community Theater at its best
When it comes to Woody Allen, he’s either you’re cup of tea, or he isn’t. Not many writer/actor/directors bring out such visceral and divergent reactions as the diminutive and prolific raconteur.
If you do like his humor, then the current production of “Don't Drink the Water” is 100 percent Darjeeling. The comedy was first produced on Broadway in 1969, when Allen was 33-years-old, and subsequently made into a movie starring Allen and Jackie Gleason, and then again into a television movie in 1975.
The plot centers on a boorish husband, Walter Hollander, played with Archie-Bunker like bravado by Ron Blanchette, his wife Marion, who suffers him with remarkable good nature, played by Joan Perkins-Smith, and their daughter, Susan, charmingly played by Emily Frederick.
The three Americans are vacationing for some reason in a communist country sometime in the 1960’s, somewhere behind the Iron Curtain. Walter inadvertently takes photographs of a military installation and all heck breaks loose.
The three run, guns firing behind them, into the American Embassy where the Ambassador's failure of a son, Axel Magee, is attempting to hold down the fort whilst his father, played by John McKone, is away. Axel is the Woody Allen character, played with just the right level of whiney ineptitude by Frank LoBianco.
The screwball cast of characters, include a Catholic priest-come-magician, Father Drobney, played with sweet sincerity by David Crowell, who has holed up at the embassy for six years, a chef, played with flamboyance and fun by first-timer Ernie Santanella, a gun-toting communist humorously played by Peter Desauliners, and the Sultan of Bashir, played with appropriate hautiness by Tim Lavery.
The Ambassador’s assistant, Kilroy, played with uptight reserve by John Lepore, gets to be the unfortunate victim of numerous physical calamities, none funnier than when he gets a concussion and thinks he is both Orville and Wilber Wright.
Like Allen’s movies “Sleeper” and “Bananas,” the play has a subversive political bent, with countless sight gags and one-liners of the “Take my wife — please” vaudevillian variety — think Bob Hope and Groucho Marx — but with an ensemble cast of 15 members playing 14 roles.
And play they do. In fact, at times it was difficult to tell who was having more fun, the audience or the actors, which is as it should be.
The Somers Village Players, now in their 30th year, are in their new location at Joanne's Café and Banquet House, with seating for 150. The stage was a three-quarter set, which guaranteed a good seat from almost any table, after a satisfying buffet dinner.
Director Gus Rousseau and the cast pulled off the daunting task of keeping this one-funny-line-after-another moving at the breakneck pace it required.
There were a few inconsequential acting jitters here and there, which is understandable considering the amount of dialog this play has, but the actors’ persevered impressively and seemed more relaxed in the second act.
Honestly, how many times in your life will you hear the words “submarine” and “your silver pattern” in the same sentence and have it make perfect sense?
The lighting by Dick Oswald and Justin Martin was spot-on, as were the sound effects by Martin — those little details are often only noticed when they go wrong, and they never did.
The costumes, by Carolyn Sullivan and Peter Desauliners were simple but effective, with special mention going to the remarkably horrid wig wife Marion wears, particularly after she and Father Drobney, dubbed “the Holy Houdini” by Walter, attempt to get him out of a straight jacket. This is Community Theater at its best.

Don’t Drink the Water
Three stars
Location: Joanne's Café and Banquet House, 155 Main Street, Somers
Running time: Two hours with one intermission.
Show Times: Oct. 5 and 6. Social hour starting at 6 p.m. Dinner at 7 p.m. Show at 8 p.m.
Tickets: $33, including buffet dinner, with cash bar. Call 749-0245 for reservations.
Production: By Woody Allen. Directed by Gus Rousseau. Produced by Betty Domer. Stage Manager, Joyce Benson. Stage Crew, Sue Moak and Sherry Samborski. Set Décor, Blinky Calder, Sherry Samborski, and Joyce Benson. Lighting by Dick Oswald and Justin Martin. Set Construction by David Crowell, Emily Fredrick, Justin Martin, Tyler Anderson, Ron Blanchette Jameson, Nathan, Jen and Tim Lavery, Dick Oswald, Kathryn and Gus Rousseau. Sound by Justin Martin. Props by Sherry Samborski. Costumes by Carolyn Sullivan and Peter Desauliners. Box office, Dee and John Moak. Program by Shirley Warner. Front of House, Sue Moak. Prize Coordinator, Betty Domer. Goodie Prize Table, Marilyn Anderson. Photography by Dick Jackson. Display by Joanne Chadbourne. House Flowers by Becky Smith. Public Relations by Dee Moak. Publicity by Wendy Peterson, Tim Lavery, Gloria Knak, Dee Moak, George Warner, Anne Kirkpatrick, Shirley Warner, John Moak, Dottie Cowan, Fred Domer, and Malcolm Chadbourne.

ACTOR...CHARACTER

Ron Blanchette...Walter Hollander
Joan Perkins-Smith...Marion Hollander
Emily Frederick...Susan Hollander
Frank LoBianco...Axel Magee
David Crowell...Father Drobney
John Lepore...Kilroy
Peter Desauliners...Krojack
John McKone...Ambassador Magee
Ernie Santanella...Chef/Kasner
Sally Frederick...Burns
Tim Lavery...Sultan of Bashir
Sherry Samborski...Sultan's First Wife
Sue Moak...Countess Bordoni
Jeff Lipton...Novotny