Playwright David Lindsay-Abaire received two 2023 Tony Awards and won rave reviews for his musical adaptation of his play Kimberly Akimbo. In 2007 he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Rabbit Hole.

Director Gary Lehman is taking audiences back to a much earlier Lindsay-Abaire play, but one that combines humor with a dark undertone. PTD Productions in Ypsilanti is presenting Fuddy Meers through August 24 at the River Arts Center in Ypsilanti.

At the center of Fuddy Meers is Claire. Every morning Claire wakes she doesn’t know who she is, where she is, and how she got that way. A man who claims to be her husband explains the situation to Claire. The husband and her rebellious teenage son help fill in some of the gaps and tell that she will learn a lot during the day but lose all again at night. 

While the husband takes a shower, a masked man with a limp, a deformed ear, and part of a pair of handcuffs rushes to Claire’s bedroom and tells her that he’s her brother and is taking her to her mother’s house.

Each character in the play has been emotionally wounded. Nothing is what it seems at the beginning. Only Claire is happy. She’s intrigued by her strange amnesia. She’s giddy to be with her mother reminiscing about old times. Her mother, Gertie, has trouble speaking after a stroke and is showing fear about something. (The play gets its name from the mother’s memories of funny mirrors at a carnival funhouse.)

Kara Williams gives a lively, wide-eyed, ever-optimistic performance as Claire. Everything revolves around her and her innocence. Williams slowly begins to understand that her life has not always been pretty. Williams gives Claire a perfect sunny personality.

Jerry Doty is the limping man. He speaks softly but erupts into anger at a moment's notice. Who is he and why is he kidnapping Claire? Doty is particularly good when he has to wrestle with the truth. His quiet moment of confession is well done.

Jacob Williams-Justin is the limping man’s hysterical partner, Millet. He expresses his deepest feelings through a homemade puppet. Williams-Justin has the squirming posture, the overemoting, and the perfect squeaky voice for his puppet and his character.

Sam Spaulding is Richard, the husband who helps her remember each day. Richard and Claire’s son set off to Gertie’s house and toke up as they speed along. Spaulding’s Richard seems to be a kind man but bit by bit unfolds Richard’s problems.

One of the problems is Kenny, the troubled juvenile delinquent. Chandler Gimson is a loud, roaring, swearing angry young man. Gimson captures all of that and also handles Kenny’s emotional sadness.

Laura Bird has the challenging role of Gertie. Bird has to speak in nearly incomprehensible speech caused by Gertie’s stroke. Gertie struggles to communicate with Claire. Bird gives a fine performance in a difficult role.

Maddie Esselink plays Heidi, a big-voiced, well-armed police officer who stops Richard and Kenny to give them a ticket. Is she really a police officer or someone else? 

Director Gary Lehman balances the broad humor and the darker revelations. Getting that balance right in a play that skims the edge of surrealism would be a challenge for any director but Lehman seems to get the two opposing approaches intended by Lindsay-Abaire. Lehman is definitely interested in getting those laughs and sometimes it falls a bit flat. But the frantic confrontation that ends the first act and opens the second act is expertly choreographed and combines action and raucous humor.

In his program note, Lehman writes that he met Lindsay-Abaire at the closing performance of Kimberly Akimbo and told him he was directing Fuddy Meers. Lindsay-Abaire responded, “I hope it holds up.”

Lehman writes that he believes it does. 

Hugh Gallagher has written theater and film reviews over a 40-year newspaper career and was most recently the managing editor of the Observer & Eccentric Newspapers in suburban Detroit.

PTD Productions' staging of David Lindsay Abaire’s “Fuddy Meers” runs August 16-18 and 21-24 at the Riverside Arts Center, 76 North Huron Street, Ypsilanti.  For tickets, visit ptdproductions.com, call 734-483-7345, email info@ptdproductions.com, or pay at the box office.