God has angels, the Devil has mimes

The Bloomington Playwrights Project's first show of the 2002 Dark Alley Series opened Thursday.\n"The Mime Crime" tells the story of two police officers, named Sergeant Justice (Kevin Roach) and Officer Johnny Law (Mike Mauloff), going on the hunt for the murdering mime who took an onlooker and turned his head into ground chuck on the pavement.\nRoach played the humorless foil who thinks finding cream for his coffee is more important to police work. Mauloff was the funny man who delivered his farcical lines nicely and with the right inflection to make believable the weirdness of dealing with people whose lives were ruined by mimes. During one interview with the victim's wife, Ms. Lutlow (Lauren McCarthy), Mauloff's delivery of his dialogue is probably his best work of the 45 minute show.\nMcCarthy, though, steals plenty of laughs for herself in the way she describes the slippery slope her husband went down. He became fascinated with the culture of mimes to the point that it ruined the couple's marriage. His decline started when he began to mime mowing the lawn and even influenced the way he carried out carnal lust in the bedroom.\nBy far the most amusing character of the show was Dr. Durshwitz (Nicole Bruce), the blind expert who has devoted her life to studying mimes. With great skill, Bruce used a German accent that didn't come and go.\nJonathan Yukich, who wrote and directed the play, took a risk using an accent, as some would venture to call it cheap blocking. Yukich, though, can feel confident in his decision since Bruce pulled it off well. At times, Bruce struggled with her cane. It would have been a more effective prop had it been less cumbersome. Still, she got more laughs than anyone else.\nYukich's work has been seen across the United States. His work has been performed in Canada, Australia and in the home of Laurence Olivier's National Theatre Company in England. Yukich, who is a 2nd year Master of Fine Arts student, made his actors keep up with the pace of the show through lines and blocking. The lines wouldn't have been as funny, if funny at all, had he not demanded the speed he did of his cast.\nDespite his credentials, I can't understand why he allowed the ending to be as lackluster as it was.\nTo me it seemed the ending was simply the point in the script where Yukich decided he was tired of writing. The ending didn't tie up any loose ends. It didn't show a killer facing justice. Granted the ending does come with some levity, but albeit this, the audience was left hanging.\nWhile you can indeed tell Yukich mimes the Lucky Strike smoke-filled traditions of detective film noir, it falls short of achieving this totally. Humphrey Bogart never would have let a killer mime escape him. \nStill, those with 45 minutes to spare would do well to spend it at the BPP, 312 S. Washington, while "The Mime Crime" still plays. \n"The Mime Crime" will play at the Bloomington Playwright's Project on September 26, 27, and 28 at 10:30 pm. Ticket prices are $6 and can be purchased at the door.