Hilarious 'Speech and Debate' respects teen angst

Speech & Debate

The Arizona Republic | AZCentral.com
Kerry Lengel
Publication Date: December 8, 2009

No Valley theater company is more dedicated to revealing the secret lives of teenagers than Stray Cat Theatre.

In plays ranging from the searing docudrama columbinus to the wicked "Peanuts" spoof Dog Sees God, the troupe explores that bewildering borderland between childhood and maturity, where not-quite-fully-formed persons can be both surprisingly sophisticated and shockingly naive, exuberantly beautiful and painfully awkward, all at the same time.

The latest example is Speech & Debate, Stephen Karam's biting (if innocuously titled) comedy about three high-school misfits out to expose a teacher who may or may not be a sexual predator. The play was inspired by some real-life events, but it's not about the serious issues it seems to address; instead, it's about how its young characters figure out how to deal with those issues - in their case, with a keen sense of the absurdity of everything, including themselves.

Stray Cat founder Ron May directs an excellent cast that includes Nathaniel Dobson as Solomon, an overly earnest journalism student, and Eric Boudreau as Howie, a gay 18-year-old who seems comfortably in his swishy skin, as long as you don't bring up the memory of his Boy Scout talent show. The bridge between them is Diwata, a frustrated drama geek who finds a creative outlet by singing drunkenly on her live video blog. She persuades Howie and Solomon to join a speech and debate team that will stretch the meaning of "dramatic interpretation" beyond recognition.

Diwata is played by Jannese Davidson in one of those rare comic performances that is so exquisitely timed, so deliciously quirky, so insanely perfect that it makes you want to jump onstage, give her a hug and hand her the business card of a Hollywood agent (if only you had one). She doesn't so much steal scenes as take them to a higher level, making the entire production that much better.

Reach the reporter at kerry.lengel@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4896.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/ae/articles/2009/12/08/20091208...