The Coward by Walking Shadow Theatre Company, performing at Red Eye Theater

Linda Sue Anderson, Briana Patnode, Suzie Juul and Shelby Rose Richardson in The Coward. Photo by Dan Norman.

I have never ever, in my exalted theatrical career, seen so much blood. The Red Eye stage is awash in it and, indeed, the raked set (a terrific design by Eli Schlatter) contains a trough, to catch the copious sanguine flow. The Coward features myriad deaths by handgun: head shots, chest shots, gut shots. And, speaking of guts… Well, never mind.

Yikes.

But lest you think that Walking Shadow‘s profoundly weird The Coward (at Red Eye, through Feb 28) subjects you to a Tarentinoan slash Peckinpahesque eruption of gruesome violence know that this production has much more in common with Georges Feydeau and (the whimsical) Neil Simon. Guns are fired, for sure, but the sound is recorded. You won’t jump out of your seat. Characters die with knowing campy zest. The performers have to quash the urge to giggle. You’ll be giggling, too. If you like camp.

Nick Jones‘s The Coward is an amusing little play, set in Britain in the late 18th century. Our hero, Lucidus Culling, entomologist extraordinaire, composer of a (probably) unreadable bug tome, stumbles into a duel – with a man he has never met. His father, a devotee of manly mayhem, heartily approves but violence makes Lucidus puke, so he hires a stand-in, Henry Blaine. But Blaine kills Lucidus’s opponent, as well as the man’s hapless second. Blood! Strangulation! Ha ha! Blaine then assumes Lucidus’s identity, with comic complications resulting therefrom.

Amusing, as I say. Droll. But WS’s artistic directors, John Heimbuch and Amy Rummenie (who directs The Coward, displaying her usual skill in teasing outstanding performances from her cast) put their heads together and asked, “How can we make this funny but slightly dull play better? I know! Let’s cast women in all the men’s roles! And a man to play the play’s one woman!”

And they did. And it works – to a point. Initially, the gender bending functions as a witty comment on the fey and frivolous upper class characters. Men more concerned with their hats than with the violence all around them. The use of women makes The Coward a campy romp – a successful and amusing romp at that.

But after a while I found myself wondering if men playing men wouldn’t make the play more pointed and powerful. Blaine’s macho preening, for example, funny though it was, was unconvincing. But if a man had played the role, it could have been truly frightening.

The performances are excellent. I’ve mentioned Charlotte Calvert as Blaine – terrific. I loved Suzie Juul and Shelby Rose Richardson as Lucidus’s pals; they made excellent foils and my happiness swelled every time they marched on stage. Linda Sue Anderson, as the put-upon butler, made me howl – she is beautifully resourceful and creative. Ditto Chase Burns as the 18 going on 35 Isabelle Dupree. Briana Patnode plays the eponymous coward, struggling to maintain his poise as the other characters swirl around him. Lovely.

If you like campy farce, The Coward is the play to see.

John Olive is a writer living in Minneapolis. His book Tell Me A Story In The Dark will be published, by Familius, Inc, in March. For further information, please visit John’s (recently updated) website.