No Time for Sergeants at Parker Theatre

Last night I went to Parker Theatre's production of No Time for Sergeants and I was very excited because it had been a really long time since I had seen it (I think it was at HCT many years ago). Will Stockdale (Truman Schipper) is a simple and guileless country bumpkin from rural Georgia who is drafted into the Air Force. He immediately runs afoul of all the other recruits in his barracks except for Ben Whitledge (Zach Harvey) who is desperate for a transfer to the infantry. Will soon starts asking for a transfer, too, and his exasperated commanding officer Sergeant King (Stu Mitchell) punishes him by giving him permanent latrine duty. Will thinks it is a promotion and cleans the latrine so well that King's commanding officer notices him and learns of his excessive punishment. King must now help Will get through the classification exams or face disciplinary measures himself but Will's naivete leads to a series of misadventures. This results in King's demotion to private and his assignment to gunnery school with Will and Ben. Chaos ensues when Will and Ben are mistakenly declared dead by King after their plane gets lost during their first flight. General Bush (Tyler Oliphant) awards them a posthumous medal but, when they suddenly appear at the ceremony, Will and Ben get the transfer to the infantry that they wanted all along so Bush can avoid public humiliation and, in an ironic twist of fate, King is given a promotion to be their commanding officer. This play is so funny (the audience was laughing out loud the entire show which was a lot of fun) and the action is non-stop. The entire cast does a brilliant job with the physical comedy and I especially loved a scene involving a drunken barroom brawl and another chaotic scene aboard a plane being flown by an incompetent crew (I laughed out loud every time the characters screamed in fear). Schipper is incredibly charming as Will (he is basically the straight man in the midst of all of the mayhem) and Harvey is hilariously overwrought as Ben but Oliphant steals the show as the superficial Bush (I loved hearing him practice the same line from his speech over and over). I was very impressed with all of the elaborate stagecraft, including the lighting design, sound design, and projections, used for the plane crash and I especially loved seeing Will and Ben hanging from a parachute. The set is very clever because it consists of riveted metal panels (meant to mimic 1950s military airplanes) that move to reveal the barracks, a latrine, and various offices and the costumes include authentic-looking military uniforms. This was a great show to see Memorial Day weekend and I thoroughly enjoyed the slapstick humor from a simpler time. I highly recommend getting a ticket (go here) for one of the performances on Fridays and Saturdays through June 27.