THEATER PREVIEW: Fishing for ‘Red Herring’

For its next number, the Laguna Playhouse has selected, in the words of its director, a “political thriller farcical romantic drama.”

“It has qualities from just about every genre,” Andrew Barnicle comments about Michael Hollinger’s “Red Herring,” running Feb. 12 through March 16. “The plot involves the FBI, dead bodies washing up at fishing docks, missing people and a Russian fisherman spy.

“It also involves the experiments with detonating the nuclear bomb,” Barnicle adds, noting that the action is set in the “red scare” period of the 1950s. “There are many other elements from the 1950s that connect these characters with each other.”

“‘Red Herring’ is a fable about marriage, but I didn’t know that when I started,” playwright Hollinger maintains.

He traces the play’s genesis to “years ago as a class exercise for one of my playwriting classes. I wrote a scene about a hard-boiled detective interviewing a belligerent landlady about one of her tenants, whose naked legs stuck out of the bathtub before them.”

This image, and the comic noir style, stuck with the playwright over the years until “Red Herring” was born. The 1950s seemed the ideal time period for the detective character, and the title suggested the McCarthy era and New England fisheries, hence the Boston setting.

“The play defies categorization in an ordinary way,” Barnicle insists. “You could call it a political thriller farcical romantic drama “” it has qualities from just about every genre.

“I like the idea that it is so unique,” the director notes. “Comedy is generally categorized as a play in which no one dies. For ‘Red Herring,’ that isn’t true at all. People die, and parts of the play are hilarious and depend on the notion of people bumping into each other at the perfect time, allowing the plot to progress in such a great way.”

It’s also a set designer’s nightmare. “Red Herring” takes place in 30 different locations, so a generic setting is required.

“The play progresses like a movie,” Barnicle declares. “It’s constantly moving with very little time between scenes for a transition. The actors play multiple roles, so they’ll go out through one door and come in through another in a completely different costume as a different character.”

Barnicle sums up “Red Herring” as “a really smart, really funny play that will appeal to most audiences.”

Opening night is Feb. 16 following four days of previews, and tickets may be reserved by calling the playhouse at (949) 497-2787.

TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Coastline Pilot.