Rust Belt troupe continues series

July 31, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

Youngstown

Are you ready to go back to “Titanic”?

Not James Cameron’s blockbuster 1997 movie epic, “Titanic.” Or even Maury Yeston’s Tony- winning musical of the same name. The “Titanic” in question is Christopher Durang’s wonderfully wacky, polymorphously perverse 1976 one-act play.

As the centerpiece of the second installment in Rust Belt Theater Company’s “Durang’ed Summer Ser-ies,” Durang’s “Titanic” is unlike any previous version you’ve ever seen. If you know the author’s satirical, frequently surreal work (“Betty’s Summer Vacation,” “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You,” etc.), it hardly will come as a surprise that historical accuracy is the least of his concerns.

Just trying to make sense of the loopy, Hellzapoppin’ narrative (two contested paternity suits, hedgehogs, tin foil and white bread are involved) requires more concentration than it takes to follow one of Shakespeare’s Byzantine comedies. And its berserk pot pourri of characters — and their connection(s) to each other — defies both comprehension and, frequently, belief.

But who needs logic or even coherence when the laughs ricochet across the stage like a gatling gun? All successful farces require a brisk, nonchalant pace, and director Robert Dennick Joki proves once again to be a master of the form. Joki’s crackerjack cast (including the terrific Suzanne Shorrab and Dan Poppke as an unhappily married couple living in “domestic purgatory”) doesn’t miss an absurdist beat, and their sublimely silly antics had an effusive opening-night audience in stitches.

Especially memorable are Tom Smith, merrily channelling vintage John Cleese in a typically uninhibited performance as the ship’s cross-dressing captain; an uproarious and irrepressible Kage Coven; and dazzling newcomer Jennifer Caventer who’s truly scrumptious in the role that put Sigourney Weaver on the map in the original off-Broadway production. The closest thing to a, uh, straight man is the droll Daniel McGarvey’s long-suffering, stiff-upper-lip sailor Higgins (the inspiration for John Hillerman’s persnickety, similarly- monickered “Magnum P.I.” character perhaps?), and like everyone else here, McGarvey is a certifiable hoot.

Opening the Rust Belt program is “For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls,” a considerably shorter but no less amusing 1993 Durang piece. In this raucous spoof of Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie,” painfully shy, physically disabled wallflower Laura has been replaced by painfully shy, mentally disabled mama’s boy Lawrence (an unrecognizable Joki) who collects glass cocktail stirrers instead of Laura’s glass animal figurines. And rather than “Gentleman Caller” Jim, Lawrence’s brother Tom (Poppke) brings home “Feminine Caller” Ginny (the wonderful Jenna Cintavey of “Fat Pig” fame) to appease their monstrous, matrimony-minded mother (Jennifer Kuczek).

Although “Tolls” feels a tad on the thin side (there’s maybe 10 minutes of choice material stretched to an overly generous half hour), the delicious, expertly played comic duet between Joki and Cintavey makes even the occasional longueurs eminently tolerable.

The concluding chapter in Rust Belt’s current series, Durang’s Pulitzer-nominated “Miss Witherspoon,” opens Aug. 26. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.

“Titanic” and “For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls” run through Saturday at the Calvin Center for the Arts. For tickets, call 330-507-2358.