Trevor
Trevor By Nick Jones
Directed by Christopher Niess
Starring Colton Butcher, Maddie Tarbox and Victoria Gluchoski</strong>
Once upon a time, I thought a pet chimp like J Fred Muggs would be the coolest thing. Then I turned 8 and realized a chimp is a cranky, difficult animal that bites hard, poops inaccurately and is stronger than the Hulk. That’s the first time I felt old. But I sympathize with Sandra (Tarbox); she’s raised Trevor (Butcher) since he was a few days old, and with her husband gone Trevor’s her only hold on sanity. But even that’s marginal; Trevor is sentient but has the attention span of a 2 year old and a fixation with Morgan Fairchild (Alyx Levesque). He met her as an animal actor; his goal is to make it in show business and gain acceptance as a human. But next door lives Ashley (Gluchoski) and her infant; she’s rightly scared of Trevor. After all, he has a history of stealing cars and parking them in people’s front yards. It’s about time to bring some adult supervision into Sandra’s daily life.
There are several strong elements here. First, this is an astonishingly physical role for Mr. Butcher. He’s constantly climbing the furniture, throwing tantrums, and physically representing a chimpanzee without the need to put him in an animal suit. Ms. Tarbox represents a more intellectual problem: pet owners are convinced that little fluffy understands every word they speak perfectly, but here she and Trevor spend the evening talking past each other. She feels he can be reasoned with, but only to a point. The closest they come intellectually is when they use sign language, but even that is restricted. Certainly Trevor knows a few words from his TV acting days: Agent, star, action, rewrite. But none of this is apparent to Sandra. Trevor even has a muse, the white tuxedoed Oliver (Carlos Ashley). He sometimes represents Trevor’s deepest desires of acceptance in the human world, but it’s not a world either of them truly understands. Rationality lies in Ashley and avuncular policeman Jim (Eric Eichenlaub). Misunderstanding a kitty or schnauzer will lead to little more than chewed furniture and territorial markings, but misunderstanding a powerful animal seeking alpha male status might be fatal.
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