Romulus Reviews
Romulus was nominated for three B. Iden Payne awards: John Botti and his musical crew (Cat Collett, Joe Trent, and Steph Tomlinson) for Best Original Score, Robert Deike for Best Supporting Actor, and Shannon Grounds for Best Supporting Actress. The play also earned a spot in the Austin Chronicle's "Most Memorable Theatrical Offerings That I Chanced to See in 2002" (a "a semi-hierarchical list" by Barry Pineo) -- at number 5: "Greg Gondek's utterly entertaining turn in The Bedlam Faction's Romulus."
The Austin-American Statesman
This very sharp pseudo-historical piece by Gore Vidal is based on Friedrich Dürrenmatt's satirical play about the last days of the western half of the Roman Empire. . . . The character of Romulus is quick with a clever comeback, and Andy Bond gives the fatalistic monarch a wry flair. Oddaker is convincingly embodied by the gruff Robert Dieke. Shannon Grounds makes a delightful Xena, empress of Byzantium, with her regal poses and haughty looks. Robert Matney is a riot as the sneering ladder-climbing designer Rupf. Greg Gondek transforms into part video game character and horror movie zombie in his dual roles as Roman and Gothic soldiers. Mike Nelson brings in an important sober note as Aemillion, Rea's betrothed, who was tortured by the Goths. These performers and others are backed up by a clarinet and much percussion, which heighten the occasion's comic solemnity . . . The Bedlam Faction theater collective is composed of thinking practitioners who clearly enjoy high wit and slapstick in equal measure. . . this production is extremely topical and truly funny.
The Austin Chronicle
When you enter the Off Center to attend this Bedlam Faction production, you're struck by two things: first, the raucous, primarily percussive music provided by Los Pollos Chickante, particularly Joe Trent on a blistering bongo and Stephanie Tomlinson wielding a wild clarinet; and second, the place smells like a barn -- with good reason. By the entrance, there's a chicken coop containing live poultry, and bales and random bits of hay litter the stage. Add to this a set that consists primarily of projected classical pillars and other things pre-modern and the semi-togas and sandals worn by the boisterous band, and you know that Rome, or its general vicinity, must be the place. . . . Gore Vidal's script for Romulus, from a play by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, is as perceptive as they come (at one point, the slogan "Progress and Slavery" is used as a rallying cry and projected onto a screen), and some of the actors stand out, particularly Robert Matney, who plays Caesar Rupf with passionate gusto, and Greg Gondek, who plays two distinctive though quite similar roles: Mares, a bloodthirsty Roman general who moves like a toy soldier and consistently tries, to great comic effect, to kill himself and others; and the blood-drenched Goth Theodoric, who is capable of doing an unbelievable number of pushups. With a slow, methodical chicken dance at the end of the first act that climaxes in wild strutting and pecking, it's easy to see that this production has more than a few things to recommend it.