The Nerd

The Nerd is a two-act play written by Larry Shue in 1981. It is a comedy about an unassuming man who has his life turned upside-down by the titular character – a capital-n Nerd that doesn’t understand social cues, plays the tambourine, and is probably the most annoying person you’ll ever meet. I went to see it performed at the Old Mill Theatre, a quaint venue with a great stage. It was directed by Joe Isaia & Rob Warner.

I’m going to write this review as a compliment sandwich. That’s probably the best way to structure my thoughts about the performance I saw; let’s start with the good.

Firstly, the set was fantastic. I wasn’t expecting much from a small community theatre stage, but it was fully committed to a realist set, complete with walls and stairs and fantastic late 70’s décor. It looked natural, and it gave the actors a lot to interact with, all actors felt at home on this set. And when it comes to the actors, they did a really great job as well. Richard Hadler as Rick Steadman (the titular “Nerd”) was champagne casting. From his impossibly annoying voice to his slouched posture, Hadler embodied his character perfectly. Alan Gill as Axel Hammond was a lot of fun to watch as well – the witty-one liners and sarcasm flowed through him effortlessly. Despite a couple of accent-related hiccups that I’m sure were improved over consecutive performances, the whole cast really do deserve a round of applause. Rhett Clarke and Kylie Isaia were great in their leading roles, while John Pomfret, Jacqui Warner, and Kody Fellows worked perfectly as a less-than-functional family.

My biggest problem with the play – and the reason I didn’t enjoy it as much as I would have liked to – was, in the end, the contents of the play itself. The Nerd is a comedy, but a lot of the jokes just weren't very funny. While Hadler played Rick Steadman perfectly, there wasn’t really anything he did that made me laugh. There are multiple sections where the Nerd stuns the room to silence as he does something “weird”, like playing the tambourine and singing badly, and it drags on for what feels like an eternity. The problem is that this kind of comedy, isn't comedic. Its Family Guy levels of stretching out the runtime. Axel is dripping with sarcasm, but nothing he says feels natural or off-the-cuff – instead, all his witty quips feel engineered, forced by a playwright to be “funny” and sarcastic. And the mildly homophobic (which I hate saying, but it’s kinda true) closet joke made me mildly uncomfortable. The rest of the crowd laughed a lot, but The Nerd is oriented to the over 40’s – the play itself was written in the early 80’s, and there are a lot of references to celebrities and trends of the time.

This review probably sounds quite harsh, but I do want to clarify that the acting, set design, and overall professionalism of the production does testify to the talent and skill of those that worked on it. You could tell that a lot of people put their heart and soul into making this production a reality, and it showed. It’s just unfortunate that the choice of play wasn’t the greatest. I laughed a couple of times, and I appreciated everything I saw, but I hope that everyone involved chooses a better script next time.