A play about a murderous French poet, told by a troupe of vaudevillian-style actors, seems it would be enough to spark some interest in an audience, but unfortunately Murray Mednick’s “Villon” falls seriously flat in its execution. “Villon,” self-described as a “hair-raising” masterpiece, tells the confusing, and painfully redundant story of the famous Parisian poet, François Villon, as he lies, steals, and murders his way through the ghettos of 15th century France.

Kevin Weisman plays François Villon as well as the narrator of his own life story. While Weisman gives a high-energy performance, it is nearly impossible to understand a majority of what he says, making the already messy story even more difficult to follow.

Clotide on the other hand, played by the noticeably talented Peggy Ann Blow, truly carries the show with her likable character and comedic timing. Her strength as a performer is so much so that she actually seems somewhat out of place among her fellow cast mates, who lack the same gusto.

Another notable member of the cast was Isabeau, played by Alana Dietze, but she too stood out in a bad way. While all of the actors seemed to be portraying characters of the 15th century, Dietez had a very modern, 21st century aura to here, that simply did not fit in with the rest of the company.

While the play presents itself like a comedy, it simply isn’t very funny. The same jokes are repeated as many as six times and quickly grow old. Interestingly, the pacing of the show is incredibly fast, but time seems to drag by tormentingly slow. The actors repeatedly insult the audience, which is funny the first time, and then just gets plain annoying.

The story is also a pretty weak one: a poet, born and raised in the slums of France, is adopted by a nobleman and given a top-tier education, but cannot seem to shake his old, dirty habits of mischief. It seems the playwright jumps through time to make the story seem more interesting, but in actuality, one can only watch a man dagger people to death while spewing out lyrical garbage for so long.

Simply put, this play fails to address a very serious question: why should a modern audience care about the life of a man who’s been dead almost 600 years? His poetry, or at least the poetry used in the show, is far from extraordinary, and there never seems to be any arch or evolution in Villon’s character. While it is not necessary that every piece of theater have a lesson to be learned, it is important that the audience can take something away from their experience. Unfortunately, “Villon” is the kind of show that will be soon forgotten by those who had to endure it.

“Villon” is playing at The Odyssey Theatre Ensemble (2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles) through March 23. Tickets are $30. More information can be found at OdysseyTheatre.com.

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