MAD COWS

On an outing with her one-month-old son, aching and lactating Maddy Wolfe is falsely accused of shoplifting in Harrod’s. While not guilty as charged, she HAS stuffed some frozen peas down her blouse to soothe her aching mammaries, an act that causes her to become a victim of the British penal system. Fiona Macleod does a deadpan reading, allowing Kathy Lette’s sardonic take on bureaucracy its full-frontal insanity. As Maddy sinks deeper and deeper into the morass of moronic prison officials, lascivious legal advisors, and an unscrupulous psychologist-in-training, Macleod keeps it all entertaining. Although the situation is Kafka-esque, that’s where the resemblance ends. Characters are stereotypes and caricatures. Fluffy stuff at best, depending more on wisecracks than wit, MAD COWS is good for a giggle when mindlessness is the best medicine. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 05]