A new land of laughs

The prestigious Explorers Club of 1879 London is an old boys club of the first order. Their meeting place is a real man cave made for swapping tales of adventure, drinking brandy and smoking cigars. It might as well have a sign posted out front: “No girls allowed.”

Director Buck Busfield runs his uniquely talented ensemble at farce warp speed, with frantic pacing, slamming doors, flying drinks and more. It’s broad comedy that takes swipes at prejudice and sexism but mostly just rolls in the rollicking comedy of stuffy scientists thrown into a tizzy when a woman is proposed for club membership. Phyllida Spotte-Hume (Stephanie Altholz) is the woman—and what is her claim to fame? She hacked through the jungle with only a spoon and discovered the Lost City of the NaKong tribe, bringing back a souvenir: a Smurf-colored native she calls Luigi (the hilarious John Lamb).

How can that compare to Professor Cope’s (Allen McKelvey) discovery of a new poisonous snake, or Professor Walling’s (the impeccable Greg Alexander) experiments in guinea pig intelligence? Or botanist Lucius Fretway’s (a nice and nebbish Jason Kuykendall) new plant he’s named Phyllida? And what about Explorers Club president Harry Percy, just returned from discovering the East Pole? The one scientist who most opposes the woman’s membership is (fittingly) the one most mocked by the playwright: Professor Sloane (David Silberman at his driest) is an “archo-theologist” who proclaims he’s found the Lost Tribes of Israel—in Ireland!

Eason Donner as a vengeful Buddhist monk and Winston Koone as the Queen’s emissary add to the Monty Python madness of it all.