Or what happened when Greer Garson just couldn’t get that one line right

In their never-ending quest to take the tiniest shard of a story and turn it into a play, Buntport Theater set its sights on a long-ago anecdote involving a film star from the 1940s and her very bad day on set at the hands of a jackass director.

What would it look like, the Buntportians wondered, if we could get a look just off set to see how people were reacting to the director hassling Greer Garson to get a one-word line — “no” — just right over 125 takes? In 125 “NO”s,  the usual lineup of Buntport actors — Brian Colonna, Hannah Duggan, Erik Edborg and Erin Rollman — takes us on a weirdly entertaining trip to explore the situation.

The soon-to-be bomb is MGM’s Desire Me starring Garson and Robert Mitchum. Crew members Walter (Edborg – lighting) and Bertie (Duggan – costumes) are joined by a local fisherman named Vincent (Colonna) and Rollman as Ruth, the censor. Vincent is there because he’d rescued Garson in a real-life incident in Monterey when she was knocked off a rock by a freak wave. To thank him, the film crew added him as an extra playing … a fisherman.

Colonna is quirky and endearing as the starstruck Vincent. But we soon find he’s no ordinary fisherman, with plenty of opinions about everything from Sartre to human anatomy. (At one point there’s quite a bit of discussion regarding the philtrum — the two ridges just below the septum.) Vincent also spends a fair amount of time practicing how to walk like a fisherman. It’s a goofy gag that somehow underscores the character’s seriousness about his extra role. It also serves as one of many physical bits to provide action amidst a good deal of philosophical discussion.

As Bertie, Duggan is in her element as the brassy everywoman who’s just doing her job despite the bullshit happening on set. She gets plenty of laughs, as does Edborg’s Walter. He’s that “you want it when?” kinda guy who’s happy to snark at the powers-that-be from the blue-collar vantage point.

Along with Vincent, the other wild-card character is Ruth, the on-set censor on the lookout for anything she deems naughty. Prim, proper and annoying in a stuffy tan skirt and jacket, she could be played just for the stereotype she is. But Rollman is a gifted comic actor who introduces several layers to Ruth, including a dizzying array of bizarre vocal and facial expressions.

Buntport works in a black-box setting with minimal set pieces. For this one, they included an interesting gimmick that involved a collection of objects lowered from the ceiling by strings operated by the actors. Signs, faces, movie posters, a fish — all kinds of stuff —descend at appropriate times. These include four old-timey microphones — one for each player — that are used for monologues on a variety of topics.

It’s a clever device that adds some business in an otherwise very wordy play.

One other unusual aspect of the show is the addition of some non-Buntport actors — albeit in recorded fashion. While we never see the action on the set, we do hear the voices of the director (played by Jim Hunt), Greer (Diana Dresser) and an assistant (Josh Hartwell).

For those accustomed to more structured scripts with rising action, climaxes and all that, you may be mystified by the Buntport approach. But for those willing to embrace absurd flights of fancy that veer well outside the lanes of what you might expect, 125 “NO”s is a kick.

Buntport works in a black-box setting with minimal set pieces. For this one, they included an interesting gimmick that involved a collection of objects lowered from the ceiling by strings operated by the actors. Signs, faces, movie posters, a fish — all kinds of stuff —descend at appropriate times. These include four old-timey microphones — one for each player — that are used for monologues on a variety of topics.

-Alex Miller, March 2, 2024, Onstage Colorado