Bank Job
by John Kolvenbach
Amphibian Stage Productions,
Fort Worth, TX
(World Premiere)
Two brothers dressed in clown masks steal 14 million dollars from a bank, only to discover that their escape route – the window in the bank’s bathroom – has been bricked over. Hilarity ensues. While its heart follows the complexities of fathers, sons and brothers, its goofy surface tries valiantly to track which gun has the real bullets.
It’s probably the only farce ever to be set entirely in an executive washroom.
Countless hours in design meetings went to puzzling through how the trick window could work. More time than I imagined possible was devoted to discussing urinals.
I knew a lot of rehearsal time would be spent nailing the rhythms and precision of the farce. But we also gave the emotional truth of the family story the focus it deserved, honoring the play’s complex mix of fraternal competition, parental inadequacy and fragile forgiveness that fuels the comedy and gives the play its heart.
Amphibian Stage Productions is an adventurous and trail-blazing theater in Fort Worth, TX.
Cast: Leicester Landon, Alexandra Lawrence, Michael Muller, Bill Ray and Marshall York.
Designers: Adam Chamberlin, Kathleen Culebro, David Lanza, and Bob Lavallee.
Press:
“Bank Job, which reaches farcical levels, warrants uproarious laughter (and delivers) one of the funniest scenes you’ll see all year, and it’s handled with rapier timing by this cast and director Jessica Bauman.” – Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
“a whiff of Orphans mixed with the merrily mutinous scent of Dog Day Afternoon” – The Dallas Morning News.
