  The Arts    Photograph by Cameron Fabrick TEA AND NOT-SO-
SYMPATHETIC: Lucy (Polina Krasnova) has an imaginary friend, Mr.
Marmalade (Keith C. Marshall), who is anything but a role model.
Kid Power  A little girl gets into a grown-up spat in RTE's 'Mr.
Marmalade'  By Mike Connor  DARK HUMOR is nothing if not useful.
Nurses are notorious for using it to blunt the gruesome
realities of the hospital emergency room. Playwright Noah Haidle
tries using it to reflect the miserably defiled state of
childhood innocence in Mr. Marmalade, Renegade Theatre
Experiment's new production about a 4-year-old girl named Lucy
whose imagination looks more like reality than it should. At
first blush, Lucy, played by the doll-faced and charmingly
childlike Polina Krasnova, is a recognizable little girl, the
sweet and prim kind who likes imaginary tea parties and adults
who play by her rules. But unlike many children whose imaginary
worlds are little more than elaborate wish fulfillments, Lucy is
endowed with what is gradually rev