"The mammoth under the bathmat is the hidden secret that everyone knows is there but no one wants to talk about," reads a program note to Ripe Theatre's evening of sketch comedy, and in spite of a few references to "the media" and "the American public" -- which turn out to be a joke -- nothing about the show is remotely political. Each little play deals with people who avoid or ignore something obvious. In the best skit, "Hairy," a squawking New York lady played by Gabrielle Fisher visits a hairstylist, who clearly doesn't know how to cut hair, and gossips about other people's health without realizing that the back of her head has started to look like wheat stubble. "Truth or Doubt" features a pair of New Age gurus in soft chairs, seated behind microphones, offering glib advice about happiness and detachment to a man who hasn't gotten over the death of his wife. "Inside the Dressing Room" is about two teenage girls buying clothes for the new school year, but it ends with a grim revelation -- a sort of surprise mammoth. Other skits, like "When Cassowaries Attack," are plain weird, and a series of five "video confessions" interspersed among the skits are lukewarm. Mammoth sometimes feels like a big in-joke for Ripe Theatre's group of friends, but Fisher and Noah Kelly act consistently well. The big disappointment is the show's lack of ambition, since "the American public," these days, obviously has a mammoth or two stashed away.
