Review of Trevor at A Red Orchid Theatre

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called Trevor and it was by Nick Jones. And it was directed by Shade Murray. It was about a chimp named Trevor (Larry Grimm) who used to be in ads and t.v. shows and wants to keep doing it, but he's too old. They want cute chimpanzees. It was also about his owner named Sandra (Mierka Girten) and how she loves Trevor but she also doesn't understand everything that he says. Trevor gets angry because he doesn't have any work. He wants fame, fortune, a human wife, and a white tuxedo. That would mean he is famous and there are human girls who like him, and he is not different from humans. It is about failure and how he fails at what he really wanted. It is also about loving somebody but you know that you have to hurt them. I really liked this play. I thought it was really funny and sad and touching and awesome.

They didn't use a puppet to be the chimpanzee, they used Larry Grimm. I think that Larry Grimm was so amazing. Like how he moved around, he basically turned into an ape. Well, humans are basically apes, but we have bigger brains and don't have hair all over us that shows. I think it was a great idea because there was stuff you couldn't do if it was a puppet or an actual chimpanzee. It wouldn't be as funny if it was an actual chimp, because he couldn't talk and that tells us Trevor's actual story. The puppet could probably talk but then you wouldn't feel like it was actually Trevor because there would be someone behind him. You also thought of Trevor kind of as a human not just an ape. There was another chimpanzee whose name was Oliver (Colm O'Reilly) who was a really good friend of Trevor's. He comes to Trevor in basically his daydreams. And he talks to him about how he shouldn't knock over glasses. It was hilarious because it is not really that bad a thing to knock over a glass, but he says it like it is the most horrible thing that anybody has ever done.

Trevor was kind of in love with Morgan Fairchild (Loretta Rezos) who was a t.v. star from the 80s. She said that she wanted to marry him, but that was basically just a dream that he had. What she probably really said was, "You are such a cute monkey" in a baby voice. Trevor was always being misunderstood or was misunderstanding things people said. Like how he thought Oliver had a human wife, which is probably not true--or Oliver might even be a human and he just doesn't realize it! And he also thought the commercial he did was about water bottles or possibly paper but it was actually about accounting software. When he is filming the commercial with Morgan Fairchild, he says, "That's right, Morgan" and starts talking like a professional ad maker would do. Everyone is hearing around him oo oo ah ah oo oo ah ah, but he is actually trying to say lines that would make the product sell. It is funny because it is just that you wouldn't really think he would say something that would actually try to sell the product because he is a chimp. I thought that it was kind of sad but also really funny that Morgan Fairchild and the AD (Brandon St. Clair Saunders) were talking gibberish, which was chaitakai kaitakai chaitakai, and how you were hearing it how Trevor heard it.

I really liked the Policeman, Jim (Noah Simon). He wasn't like a really tough policeman. He likes Trevor but also kind of doesn't like him because he is kind of annoying and he is kind of like breaking the law every single day, like when he took the gun from Jim and how he drove the car. And Jim doesn't just think, "you took that car away, you are such a bad little monkey." He actually takes everything seriously. You hear about how Trevor "baptized" his baby, but Jim doesn't like him that much anymore. I thought that he was a good guy even though you were following Trevor's story and not his.

The next-door neighbor of Sandra and Trevor is Ashley (Lindsey Pearlman) who had just had a baby. How you feel about Ashley depends on whether you like Trevor or don't like Trevor. I know that he is doing the wrong thing at the end, but I feel sorry for him. He is in such a bad position. I am also kind of on Ashley's side because she wants her child to be safe and not to be getting hurt by huge monkeys.

Sandra is a really important character because she is Trevor's owner and is one of the main characters in the story. She thinks of herself as Trevor's mother even though that is basically impossible. He is still a kid to us, because he is 11, but he is a adult in chimp age. People treat him more like a baby than she does, but she treats him more like a tween or teenager. I thought that she was a really good actress because you really believed that she was struggling with how Trevor was behaving and she loved him but she was really embarrassed by him. She has to make a sad decision between Trevor and a baby at the end which I am not going to tell you about because that would be a spoiler! One of my favorite scenes was the scene where Sandra and Trevor were making chicken pot pie in the microwave. It kind of felt like me and my mom. We don't make chicken pot pie in the microwave; we write reviews. They were doing something together that they both like doing, and it showed that they loved each other very much.

People who would like this show are people who like Morgan Fairchild, white tuxedos, and chicken pot pie. I was completely jumping up and down with joy and laughing hysterically when I saw this play. It also made me feel sad and anxious. It is good to feel all those different emotions at the theater because that means the play is an amazing one.

Photos: Michael Brosilow