Greetings Friend Your Kind Assistance Is Required

The call to adventure and the wisdom of kindness echoed in the theater Thursday night at the premiere of Topher Payne's new comedy "Greetings Friend Your Kind Assistance Is Required" at Georgia Ensemble Theatre.

The primary action of the play occurs in Zardelgnia, the fictional country bordered by Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan. This country is known for a couple of things: a necktie factory and a giant sinkhole. Zardelgnian culture owes many of its idiosyncrasies to the iconic American brand of yesteryear, "Blockbuster." Apparently, foreign planes would occasionally fly over, dropping their trash into the bottomless sinkhole, and there was a shipping container of VHS tapes that didn't quite make it into the pit.

The imprisoned Prince Paljor (Skye Passmore) sends a desperate e-mail to America, the land of opportunity, in search of a "very helpful person." As you might imagine, the title is a reference to the kind of e-mail we've all seen in our inbox from the Nigerian prince who needs your help with a problem concerning some vague sum of money.

"Greetings Friend" opens with a monologue from Verusha (Stacy Melich), Zardelgnia's wisest old mystic crone. The play venerates feminine wisdom that comes with age. The main characters Rhonda Charles (a fabulous performance by Brenda Porter) and Marybeth Mulaney (Karen Howell) find themselves on the precipice of a journey when Rhonda receives a curious e-mail that inspires her to take a step into the unknown.

Rhonda and Marybeth make their way to the sender of the e-mail with the reluctant help of travel agent Tammy (Stacy Melich). After a trip best described as a tribulation, they arrive in Zardelgnia, a nation mired in political strife, now under the bumbling control of General Mahzuno (Cristian Gonzalez) and his frivolous wife Tinkoloshe (Parris Sarter). As Rhonda Charles comes to Prince Paljor's aid, she's ushered further along her own heroes journey where her bravery and relationships are tested.

With seven actors playing 15 characters, the play has some great quick-change moments. Sarter, Melich, Jef Holbrook and Gonzalez play three characters each. Melich and Sarter show the most range in their portrayals of some diverse characters. Stacy Melich portrays the shamanistic crone Verusha with sharp, wry wit. As Tammy, she comes across as an aptly hyperbolic Southern travel agent.

Parris Sarter really gets into character as the easily despised Tinkoloshe; her portrayal of Alicia, Rhonda's daughter, really draws out the drama of their family dynamic. Brenda Porter (Rhonda Charles) and Karen Howell (Marybeth Mulaney) really do steal our hearts through their character's transformations as they move into the light of their own inner power.

Under the helm of director Shannon Eubanks, this production conveyed Payne's storytelling prowess. A cohesive production despite a couple of minor hiccups and audio issues, the play goes beyond the familiar buddy adventure comedy and the power of Spanx to embrace a message of empowerment in life's later stages.

There's also a conversation happening about politics, ecology and American culture that permeates the dialogue of the play, from the ruin of the sinkhole to the constant dumping to the cues to popular movies that find interesting ways to serve the plot. Ultimately, it's a play of reconciliation -- the reconciliation of a nation and its groups of people, the reconciliation of family and the reconciliation of one's own path unto itself.

"Greetings Friend" runs through January 22 at Georgia Ensemble Theatre, 950 Forrest Street, Roswell, GA 30075. For tickets and information, call 770-641-1260 or visit www.get.org.