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‘Four Beers’ revival at Fitton

Theater company will stage the popular play through Sunday

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By Richard O Jones, Staff Writer 11:45 PM Tuesday, September 15, 2009

HAMILTON — The Mad Anthony Theatre Co., the resident theater company at the Fitton Center for Creative Arts, will revive one of its most popular shows this weekend with “Four Beers” by David Van Vleck.

The group was originally scheduled to begin this season with “The Real Inspector Hound,” but some casting issues forced artistic director Henry Cepluch to switch gears, and so he approached Rick Carson, who directed the original “Four Beers” five years ago, about a revival. Three of the original five cast members were able to reprise their roles.

The play concerns five middle-age men who meet every Monday evening at their neighborhood bar to watch the game of the week on TV. On this particular Monday, however, they arrive to discover that the TV is broken and they will have to talk to each other for the first time. The cast includes Dan Britt, Jim Ward, Tom Redman, Denny Thomas and Chris Kramer.

Carson said he first saw the play at Dayton’s Future Fest in 2001 and struck up a casual friendship with the playwright, who soon sent him a script and permission to perform it. Since the first Mad Anthony production, “Four Beers” has also had an off-Broadway run.

“It’s a show that everyone can identify with,” Carson said. “Everyone is either a person up there on the stage or their husband, father, uncle, somebody they know is just like one of them.”

Even so, Carson said the characters are more realistic than allegorical.

“The topics they talk about are topics that men really talk about,” he said. “Even though the show is set in the Reagan era, even some of the timelier topics are appropriate to today’s economy.”

That is, one character laid off from his job wonders if he’ll ever be able to return to work. Others contemplate the fact that the life courses they set out for themselves 20 years ago haven’t turned out as planned.

Even though it’s the same script and some of the same actors, the play has different coloring and nuance, Carson said.

“Every actor brings something unique to the show, and it’s interesting to see how the show slightly changes,” he said. “Even the actors who were in it before respond differently.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.

“Four Beers” by David Van Vleck

When: Preview 8 p.m. today, Sept. 16; performances 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 17-20

Where: Fitton Center for Creative Arts, 101 S. Monument Ave., Hamilton

Tickets: $10 preview; $15 members/$17 nonmembers regular performances

Info: (513) 863-8873; www.fittoncenter.org

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