EXCERPT OF ARTICLE
Funnier.
If you are a fan of absurdist theater, you can’t err ere you see Buntport’s “The Death of Napoleon: A Play in Less Than Three Acts.” The ingenious theater company returns with this welcome original work that finds Napoleon Bonaparte exiled once again, this time to the island of St. Helena (this time for good) with only his moody ruminations, his overtaxed chef, a formidable bee, and a precocious 12-year-old to keep him occupied.
Brian Colonna continues to evolve as a performer, and he doesn’t play “Boney” — as young Betsy Balcombe dubs him — for easy laughs so much as lets the one-time world conqueror wallow in his sour moods, his petulance, his self-pity. These moods are signaled via flags hoisted on the island. The Bee (Hannah Duggan) raises flags. So does young Betsy (Erin Rollman). There’s a flag for “Contemplation” and one for “Languor and Dejection,” among others. But steer clear, regardless.
One poor soul who can’t refuse Napoleon’s beck and call is Chef (Erik Edborg). In white uniform and toque, he high-steps in and out of scenes ensnared in Napoleon’s obsession with whether one sort of bread once baked can become another type.
Given his sulky nature, the tiny sandy atoll that he’s confined to is more sandbox than isle. But for all his temperamental outbursts — “I am not short, I am average” — he knows well that this is his final stop and drafts Bee, Chef and Betsy to help him rehearse his death.
Press materials hinted that this tale of a little-big man furious that his reign has come to an end might resonate with other petty if dismayingly consequential tyrants. But this Napoleon needs no modern antecedent to hold his own and earn the audience’s amused attention.
Did I mention there’s a teeter-totter in the middle of the spare yet handsome set by behind-the-scenes enchanter SamAnTha Schmitz and the rest of the company? Evocative sound and lighting design bring surf sounds and a nighttime hue to the island in the middle of the black box theater on Lipan Street.
See-sawing is not a bad description of the pleasures of “The Death of Napoleon,” which was created by the five-person company. There are history-tweaking jests and then ridiculous physical comedy. Intellect and belly laughs. A cursory peek at Napoleon lore suggests the Buntporters did not loaf in devising another playfully shrewd work so soon after their 50th original work (spring’s “Richard” about Richard III).
There were rhymes made up about Napoleon and Betsy upon hearing her father would be briefly hosting the prisoner (and was terrified he’d have a flaming eye in the middle of his forehead). And that Bee is not a figment of his lonesomeness but the symbol he chose for the empire. And, because this wee comedy is about huge power trips, there will be roses along with that ongoing riff on bread and national identity. Focaccia or baguette, anyone?
-Lisa Kennedy, February 10, 2022, Denver Post