The latest of his collection of political parodies, Dave Buchen's Spukt (pronounced "spooked") takes the stage at The Viaduct Theater with Napoleon Bonaparte as the object of scrutiny. The musical comedy follows a rough outline of the French emperor's conquests in the Middle East, probing at his character flaws, inflated ego and boundless appetite for domination.
Dripping with political sarcasm and featuring one-liners loaded with historical implications, Spukt has its entertaining moments. The grand conquests and inept comments of Napoleon hit closer to home than a historical figure's thirst for power. A Western nation invading a Muslim one by force, presumptuously assuming the title of liberator? It sounds vaguely familiar. The jokes, however, are often greeted by awkward silence as obscure historical references fly over the heads of audience members unfamiliar with the life of Napoleon.
Predictably, the stage is pointedly barren, host to a single chair in the middle of the room and floor-to-ceiling banners marked with the words "the issue has not yet been laid to rest" in sloppily painted English and German. Echoes of the actors' voices reverberate off the sparsely decorated walls of the theatre as they address the audience as Napoleon's subjects.
Instead of sitting in an orchestra pit where the musicians stay tucked neatly out of sight, the three-piece band sits directly onstage and interacts with the characters. The Queen especially is often annoyed with the band and yells at them to cut it out. The way the band, actors and audience are intertwined by the close quarters of the theater allows for an interesting dynamic that is lost on the anonymity of larger venues.
Navigating the sticky situations of the emperor's invasion of Egypt and his disastrous attempt at infiltrating Russia, the play's five characters carry the burden of portraying the conquests and failures of a massive empire, while making it funny to boot. There are no distracting, pretty props to guide the hands of the actors to get their points across, so their own faces, words and body language are the focal points of the show rather than tangible objects. Despite the audience's intimate proximity to the stage, it is difficult to relate to characters. They seemed to be concentrating so intently on delivering their lines that they forget to make a connection with the audience. Spukt did not emanate the necessary electricity that turns fake emotions produced by actors into a real experience for viewers.
The storyline bumbles along, alternating between making barely disguised attacks on Napoleon's intelligence and weaving in side stories that are supposed to all blend into the climactic ending, but they don't. Most of the play is spent grappling with the confusion of who killed Napoleon, what to do with his last decree (which dictates looting and riots throughout the city) and who has rights to the body (if they can find it). It is understood early on that Napoleon's murder was a conspiracy, and rather than an ending that ties all the loose ends in an epiphanic moment in which all is revealed, everything collapses together and leaves the audience to sort through the rubble.
Musical comedy is a term applied loosely in the situation of Spukt. Each character sings at least one uninspiring solo, stumbling over weak vocals and even weaker song selection by Christopher Schoen. The songs not only had no discernable distinction from one another, but somehow they never managed to suit the mood of the scene.
There are no redeeming qualities to make up for the faults of the play. The mediocre acting and lacking vocal abilities of the characters cannot salvage the show when the plot lines are so tangled and unresolved.
Spukt plays at The Viaduct Theater, located at 3111 N. Western Ave., through Dec. 22. Performances are Thursday - Saturday at 8 p.m. Tickets are a $12 suggested donation. For more information, call 773-347-1041.
2 STARS
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