CAST of “Fools” at Westminster Community Playhouse (WCP)/

By Thom de Martino
Orange County Tribune

Who needs a ship of fools, when you can have an entire town?

 The renowned Westminster Community Playhouse is now staging their production of playwright Neil Simon’s “Fools”, directed by Matt Riggle. Taking place long ago, it’s the story of schoolteacher Leon Tolchinsky (Landon Moss), newly arrived in the little Ukrainian town of Kulyenchikov where he has been hired to educate Sophia Zubritsky (Michelle Sams), daughter of the local doctor.

However, the eager young instructor soon learns that the town is reputed to be cursed: that for the last 200 years, the town’s populace has been rendered… simpleminded? Intellectually challenged?
That is to say, dumb.

Really dumb.

Naturally Leon regards this as mere superstition, only to realize there may be something more to it.
Upon meeting some of the townsfolk, including the local shepherd (sans sheep) Snetsky (Michael Corcoran), magistrate (JD Rinde), butcher Slovitch (Isaiah Moore), postman Mishkin (Gaelyn Wilkie) and vendor Yenchna (Kati Moore), he finds himself talking in circles with them (such as when he tries to buy flowers from the merchant woman, only for her to tell him he’s buying the fresh fish she’s caught today) … only then does he realize just how painfully dull-witted they are.

This strange revelation continues upon meeting Dr. Zubritsky and his wife Lenya (Greg Stokes and Desi Molinari), who are equally slow mentally, but recognize it – hence, their attempt to find an educator from outside the accursed town to teach their daughter.

Upon setting eyes on Sophia, Leon finds himself instantly smitten with her: but as if he didn’t have enough to deal with, it seems she has another suitor – the  maligned (and temperamental) Count Gregor Yousekevitch (Neil Switzer), who himself regularly proposes to the doctor’s daughter not once, but twice … daily.

Surrounded by inanity, can even the determined Leon find some way to educate Sophia and the town to break the curse of generations?

This is yet another charming production from the WCP players, with many new faces adding to the stellar array of actors performing there.

Moss’s excellent Leon is eager and well-intentioned, almost endlessly patient with the idiocy surrounding him, as he tries to suss out the truth of this centuries-old curse; the players of the various townsfolk, for all their characters’ slow-wittedness, are distinctive and endearing; Stokes’s and Molinari’s performances as the parents who only want the best for their daughter, despite their own dullness, is moving and funny;

Sams’ Sophia is gentle and kindly, with a delightful innocence about her; and Switzer’s Count Yousekevitch is delightfully devious, and has a couple of fantastic asides to the audience.

It’s a marvelous and fun piece, perhaps even timely: the story of one man’s quest to bring illumination to a town enveloped by the darkness of ignorance… and finding love in the process.
With great performances and atmosphere, “Fools” is a fantastic farce suitable for all ages: definitely one to catch while you can. (You’d be foolish not to.)

“Fools.” Landon Moss, Greg Stokes and Michelle Sams star in this fun piece about a town cursed with a plague of stupidity. Now playing through Sunday, Sept. 21 at the Westminster Community Playhouse, 7272 Maple St, Westminster. Ticketing information online at http://www.wcpstage.com, or call (714) 893-8626.