A Tuna Christmas

Deep-Fried & 'Tuna'-fied Play extols small towns

"Greater Tuna." Fewer urban concerns.

Small-town Archer City's Royal Theater is going small-town — and quaint and quirky — but definitely not small potatoes for its latest production, Jaston Williams, Joe Sears and Ed Howard's infamously hilarious two-man sendup of small-town life. Only, the Royal decided to go a little bigger with the cast.

"We've changed it up just a little bit. It's going to be three men," said producer Gary Beesinger of the comedy, which opens Thursday night for a two-weekend run.

Two of the cast members — Nick Long of Wichita Falls and Bryan Ray of Graham — are newcomers to the Royal stage, while director Greg Pollock, who also tackles some of the 20 or so characters, is a veteran of the Royal Players' productions.

"I play, basically, five characters, but one's just a dog, so I get to 'yip!' a lot," Pollock said with a laugh.

"Greater Tuna" is the first in a series of comedies by Williams, Sears and Howard. It's the one that launched a thousand characters, or a few dozen at least, from the town of Tuna, supposedly the third smallest town in Texas (the other plays are "A Tuna Christmas," "Red, White and Tuna" and "Tuna Does Vegas"). "Greater Tuna" made its debut in Austin in 1981 and its off-Broadway debut the following year, and the playwrights even have performed the show at the White House for President George Bush and Barbara Bush.

The sine qua non in this play is that all the town's residents are portrayed, traditionally, by just two men willing not only to bring to life the menfolk but to put on a spiffy hat, gloves and some heels to play the female characters, as well.

Pollock said it's a challenge not just to breathe life into these different characters and to make sure each is decidedly different from the next, but, "Really, it's the costume changes," he said. "I can play multiple characters — I've done that in plays before ... You have to do layers (of clothing to speed the quick costume-change process along), or you have to think, 'How can we use the same piece twice?' "

Some of the scene changes are just 30 seconds long, Pollock said, which makes for havoc backstage, where assistants are lined up and making sure the actors have the right costumes for the right scene.

In "Greater Tuna," the audience meets radio personalities Thurston Wheelis and Arles Struvie. They give the farm report ("Beef is up, pork is down and chickens are vascillatin' ") and the weather report ("Move to higher ground; we're in for a frog-strangler"). There's Vera Carp, the Baptist overachiever who's in a power struggle with the Rev. Spikes. His sermons are a hilarious barrage of clichés — "He fought fire with fire and kept those homefires burning, and when he couldn't stand the heat, he got outta the kitchen.

A Tuna Christmas : Patti Tours

Hilarious holiday fun ensues in this all-new production when master comedians Joe Sears and Jaston Williams, with their witty comedic timing, trademark characterizations and split-second costume changes portray all 24 citizens of Tuna, the third smallest town in Texas.  Join us as we enjoy this Christmas production and lunch at Fort Worth’s famous M&O’s Station Grill.  Tour includes: deluxe motorcoach transportation, lunch, and orchestra level seats.

A Tuna Christmas

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