A little known play by well known playwright Neil Simon, Fools is now onstage at the Kentwood Players. Simon’s humor is both sweet and sophisticated. It’s an easy, laugh out loud Simon play, the same humor as The Odd Couple or Plaza Suite. Simon flipped his own script for Fools, writing jokes of misunderstandings.
Leon Tolchinsky (Miles Garcia) has traveled to Kulyenchikov to be a teacher. He falls in love with his pupil, Sophia (Lyndsay Palmer) – the girl who has just learned how to sit down, but trying to teach her (or anyone else in the village) is a task that Leon think he cannot tackle on his own, because of the curse.
With wonderful direction by Jeremy Palmer, the players welcome you into their town of Kulyenchikov. The town has been cursed with stupidity for centuries, and the villagers don’t seem to know the differences between up, down, right, left, they cannot tell flowers from fish…
The play was originally titled The Curse of Kulyenchikov, and the idea that everyone in the village in cursed with stupidity is the lead in to much of the humor. Of course, it’s the love story that carries the plot, and the production here sets a tone of winsome charm.
I was told by someone walking into the theatre that Simon set out to write the play Fools to spite his soon-to-be ex-wife; their divorce agreement gave her the profits from his next play. Setting out to write the worst play that he possibly could, Simon still couldn’t help writing like Simon; funny, insightful and romantic.
So, who is a fool?
Fools at Kentwood Players
July 19- August 10, 2024
For tickets, go to KentwoodPlayers.org
Sophia Joy
