Reefer Madness
Breakthrough Theatre • Winter Park, Florida
by Carl F. Gauze
How can you run a country without a good, solid threat, internal or external? Back in the middle of the last century, marijuana was a favorite fear. Since it was popular with minorities, it made an easy fodder for fear and paranoia. In this outrageous and mostly funny look at youth sucked into crime and depravity by the local connection, we meet Mae Coleman (Jillian Victoria) and Jack Perry (Sean LeBlanc). They work for the unseen Mr. Big, keep odd hours, and ply high school students with booze and dope.
And woe be unto these children. Young Jimmy Lane (Fransiscus Fendrian) falls into dealing, foreign exchange student Blanche D’Jour (Jenny Valiente) has casual sex with all the guys, and Bill Harper (Josh Scott) dumps his girlfriend and her poodle skirt for a long-term relationship with Satan’s sensemilla. Actually, it looks pretty much like fun and a better way to spend your day than running laps. Or so it seems to a non-athlete, like me.
The plot is more than heavy handed, it’s a sack of lead shot to the base of your brain and three roofies in a half-bottle of Four Roses whiskey. Judge Larry (Larry Stallings) does his signature stammer as he sends these formerly clean-cut kids to perdition. Ralph Wiley (Benjamin Mainville) does an excellent overdosed junkie, and Mae Coleman feels bad about giving all these clean-cut kids the demon weed just to keep her brothel / shooting galley / kids club profitable.
In just about all of their roles, the cast far exceed their material. And isn’t that what we are here for? Something goofy painted with a big old bucket of hallucinogens that makes marvelous sense — but only if you’re stoned.
