Review: Theater is the target of a delightful Guthrie double-header

Theater is not about theater, we often like to say. It's about life, death, love, hate and everything in between.

Sometimes, though, theater is about theater, with all its secrets and intrigues. Such is the case with "The Critic" and "The Real Inspector Hound," two one-act comedies now at the Guthrie Theater. The playwrights take aim at the cynical wretches who, because they lack the confidence and talent to actually make art, have chosen to critique those who take the risk to stick out their chins and beg for adoration.

This delightful twin bill opens with "The Critic," Richard Brinsley Sheridan's 18th-century spoof — adapted and slimmed considerably by playwright Jeffrey Hatcher, who inserts a few zings of his own. Actors John Ahlin and Robert Dorfman portray fatuous and self-important theater critics (are there any other kind?) who hope to sabotage a play written and directed by a colleague who stands on an even lower rung — newspaper journalism.

Ahlin and Dorfman's characters visit the rehearsal, helmed by Mr. Puff (Britt Herring), and find themselves flummoxed not just by how bad the play is but also by how well a special guest receives it.

It's all arch, witty and farcical, under the crisp restraint of director Michael Kahn.

Tom Stoppard feasted on his own experience as a critic for "The Real Inspector Hound," which he wrote in 1962. It is more complex dramatically than the first play, more metatheatrical and surreal. Two critics (Ahlin and Herring) hunker down for a dashingly bad melodrama and find themselves in a absurdist whirlpool that sucks them under.

Stoppard's ear for the critic's lexicon and syntax is a little humbling. Can we ever write such breathless phrases as "Does this play know where it is going?" without a self-conscious twinge?

The Guthrie production (in association with Shakespeare Theatre Company of Washington, D.C.) uses eight actors to play a myriad of roles. There really is not a bad performance here. And that's not just another critic's cliché — well, yes, it is, but it's true.

Ahlin could not be more perfect for Birdboot in "Hound," ranging from bluster to beautifully subtle physical tics. John Catron makes us forget who he is in several roles for "The Critic." Dorfman does Inspector Clouseau by way of Marty Feldman in "Hound," and Naomi Jacobson shines from the background in that play. Herring, who was standing in for Robert Stanton on Sunday night, pumps flamboyance into Mr. Puff and studied irritation into Moon, the second critic in "Hound."

Although the critic is the putative target of both these plays, no one engaged in the theater game comes out unscathed. Hatcher's adaptation jabs the playwright, producer and director. Stoppard is hilariously merciless in what he makes actors do.

Add it up and it's a thoroughly enjoyable evening in the theater. Wow. There's an original thought.

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