`Zoo' unmasks beastly theater // Satire spoofs cliches of contemporary stage

Naked Zoo Chloe Cloud/Tommi Jeannette Schwaba Antoinette de Credenza/Connie Karol Kent Bob Rodinski/Gordie Russ Flack Todd Skyler/Chief Mark Nutter Chip Van Nuys/Adam Peter Burns A play written and performed by Friends of the Zoo, directed bySteven Ivcich. With sets by Mary Griswold, lighting by GeoffreyBushor, costumes by Karol Kent. Presented at Victory Gardens StudioTheater, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave., 871-3000. Performances through May10.

A whole herd of sacred cows has been running amok on the stagesof our theaters for some time now. But in "Naked Zoo," the latestproduction of the young Chicago satirists known collectively asFriends of the Zoo, quite a few of those over-fed bovines are beingneatly ground into hamburger.

With varying degrees of success, "Naked Zoo" (now at the tinyVictory Gardens Studio Theater) parodies many of the playwrights,directors and actors whose innovations quickly have degenerated intothe cliches and abuses of contemporary drama. Assuming the identityof members of the bogus Me First Ensemble (a tight-knit littletheatrical tribe in the tradition of such local companies asSteppenwolf and Remains), the group gives us scenes of backstage andonstage life as they present a play that echoes the works of SamShepard, Lanford ("Balm in Gilead") Wilson, Mark ("When You Comin'Back Red Ryder?") Medoff and many others who have used the roadsidedive or greasy spoon as a metaphor for the demise of the Americandream.

The cast of characters includes Tommi (Jeanette Schwaba), aninnocent blind girl who speaks in mystical phrases; Connie (KarolKent) a cheap whore with the guilt of a Catholic school girl; Chief(Mark Nutter), a brooding, all-knowing Native American; Adam (PeterBurns) a pained homosexual artist who ultimately canonizes thedenizens of the bar, and Gordie (Russ Flack), a nerdy Mr. MiddleAmerica whose lewd jokes continually fall flat. As beer bottles aredrained in quick succession, the group waits for the results of alottery to be announced on television. Meanwhile, they play havocwith conceits recognizable to anyone who has spent time at thetheater or movies in the past decade.

There's a bow to "Apocalypse Now," "Tracers," "The KillingFields" and every other post-Vietnam War tale of trauma and despairset to the music of the Doors. There's a nod to scatology androll-in-the-mud realism, and an inspired put-down of the tendency toKabuki-ize the action. And there even is the inevitable reactionaryscene in which a Norman Rockwell-like family on a corn flake high isperfunctorily nuked into oblivion.

Woven into this staged "play " are the personal lives andfortunes of the actors themselves. And it is here that the Zoo-itesstrip bare their own profession and its suspect artistic methods.This may be funnier to those on the inside, but the more ludicrousand pretentious aspects of actors' warm-ups, animal exercises andpsychological gamesmanship (all in the name of character discovery)are sent-up in a fine puff of smoke.

Directed by Steven Ivcich, "Naked Zoo" sometimes can be asself-indulgent and tedious as the stuff it's parodying - particularlyduring the weaker first act. A tighter story line, more detailedobservations, and some cutting would help. But generally "Naked Zoo"is right on target. Schwaba is especially wicked and hilarious asthe wild child; Nutter is a perfectly deadpan Indian; Burns is justright as both the seething loner and the L.A.-bound narcissist, andLucia Lombardi (who just happens to be the real thing) is perfect asthe hard-edged stage manager with a heart of gold.

"Naked Zoo" reminds us that it is absolutely essential to rattlethe cage of our theatrical pets.