One and a half stars
Buck Creek Players;
directed by Lea Viney

The Deer and the Antelope Play has a trite script with a tired storyline. Eleanor (Serita Borgeas) takes in her daughter, Carol (Christina King), and troubled 19-year-old granddaughter, Mindy (Meagan Matlock), after Mindy burns down the house. Eleanor had originally been planning to take in a boarder to keep her company, and when Kenetta (Sonja Schoene) answers Eleanor’s newspaper ad, Eleanor decides to give her a trial run, even though she now has a full house. Kenetta joins the family like a sexually deranged, trailer trash Mary Poppins, swooping in to heal the family’s woes. Sadly, this blasé premise was not made any more dynamic through stiff and forced acting. Lines were rushed and off-rhythm. The actors didn’t know what to do with their hands and shifted uncomfortably around the set. At almost two and a half hours, the show dragged painfully. The set, however, designed by director Lea Viney, was authentically grandma’s-house-like. And the opening lighting sequence that highlighted each area, by Don Drennen, was a nice touch. Through March 16; 317-862-2270.