LOCAL THEATER: Whats So Funny Bout Desperation?
PORT TOWNSEND — Who would have thought there would be so much comedy in desperation? Mel and Edna certainly are desperate — their barely affordable apartment is a dump, the New York they live in is a cesspool and their lives seem to be governed by a particularly harsh version of Murphy’s Law: Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong, and inevitably dump all over them. The genius of Neil Simon’s play “The Prisoner of Second Avenue” is that Mel and Edna also are funny, in the face of all their travails. Simon skillfully balances the hopelessness of a New York where many are out of work and just about everybody else is on strike, tempers are frayed and creature comforts seem to be universally out of order, with the inherent, resilient humor of New Yorkers who dwell there nonetheless. It’s a love-hate relationship that most of us will never get. But Simon does, and milks it for many laughs with some of his most genuine and touching dialogue. The bunch currently presenting “The Prisoner of Seco
