By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Yes, Mimi, you look good, excuse me, great, in that silver form-fitting sequined dress. Perfect, some would say.
We know you expect nothing less than perfection, and a complement on your perfection as a chaser.
She promises the audience pointedly that they will learn by the end of the play what it is to see and understand perfection. Then she walks off-stage to let her story unfold.
By the time, she says farewell some 50 minutes later, she’s donning that same shimmering dress, and we understand all too well the price of perfection.
The one-act comic thriller “Mimi’s Famous Company” written by Nina Wright and directed by Allie Sanders, is being staged by the Black Swamp Players in the air-conditioned Oak Street Theatre, opening Friday at 8 p.m. The show continues June 18, 24, and 25 at 8 p.m. with Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. on June 19 and 26. Visit blackswampplayers.org for tickets. Wright will attend the June 17 and 24 performances and answer questions after the play.
Mimi (Emily Mather) had her desire for perfection drummed into her by her mother Sheila (Samantha Heater).
From the time she was but a babe in arms, she was armed with the knowledge that her mother was the perfect mother and she was the perfect child, and the rest of the world, especially Mimi’s father, be damned.
That means Mimi will go to an academy for the gifted and talented. That means she will become a lawyer despite her interest in drawing and acting.
Mimi’s favorite movie is “All About Eve.” She identifies with the sinister understudy in the film. Mimi sees her as ambitious. She sees her as a role model.
Never mind being a helicopter mom, Sheila is a fighter jet mom. She’s hair-triggered and likely to go ballistic at the slightest hint of resistance. She reminds the math teacher who dares give her daughter two Cs, that she knows the mayor.
When Mimi takes matters into own her hands and asks for a chance to do extra credit to raise her grade to an A to help her get into the charter school, she is far more calm and even charming. Still the teacher (Tiffany Scarola) says that it is mathematically impossible for her to bring her grade up to an A. Mimi understands and even gives her card, and hand drawn card, that announces it’s from Mimi’s Famous Card Company, like Hallmark only better.
These cards pop up throughout the play, and when they do, you know Mimi will get what she wants.
Doesn’t matter whether the recipient is her dad (Steve Bishop) who balks at letting her live in New York City with him, or his actor wife Lissa (Hali Malecki) who refuses to leave the household while Mimi visits. Or her mother’s boy toy Digger (Chase Greenlee).
In the end, Mimi has a card ready for the guy who is picking her up for a date just in case he doesn’t truly appreciate her perfection.
“Mimi’s Famous Company” is the first winner of the Telling Stories, the Black Swamp Players’ writing competition. “Mimi’s” debut was delayed by the pandemic. I’m sure the author was glad her character didn’t enter as well because Mimi would stop at nothing to win.
