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We are having a pre-show party this Saturday 21 March at 6:30pm. Tickets are $75 at the door and $50 online (via our donation button). Party goers will then be our guests to the 8pm performance of the Australian play Love.
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photo: Deanna R. Frieman
Here’s a rarity: a bunch of guys (all hetero, save one) dealing with their issues of “masculine intimacy” in a play that isn’t out to damn them or to damn testosterone in general. In this sometimes poignant and largely cliche-free dramedy (by Blair Singer) the buddies who reunite some years after college over drinks and pizza are believable regular guys whose bonds with each other, formed in post-adolescence, have been revised in the transition to adulthood. Some of their conflicts, such as the strain between the now-sober musician and the eternal drunk who used to be his best friend, seem like they’re going to be been-there done-that but the resolves are not what you expect; others, such as the realization that a long-standing friendship had been based on idolatry, are things that guys are too seldom depicted talking credibly about. The actors give finely detailed performances that make it very clear that each of the characters’ relationships to the others has been thought out: five guys, and one gal who shows up unexpectedly, add up to a high number of interpersonal dynamics and yet my bullshit detector almost never went off. Mark Armstrong’s direction allows the drama and humor of the piece while keeping it all grounded in so believable and clear a reality that you could chart the rise of the liquor buzz just by how the actors move around the room. The level of acting is generally impressive in its detail but I must make special mention of Chris Thorn, who plays the kind of sometimes inappropriate, sometimes juvenille goofball you can’t help but like no matter how hard you try. He not only puts over most of the play’s funny business, he also precisely nails a dead-honest drunk dramatic monologue that is one of the play’s most memorable highlights.
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The Most Damaging Wound
November 11, 2008
Reviewed by A.J. Mell
Like the characters it portrays, Blair Singer’s The Most Damaging Wound acknowledges the need for men to bond with each other emotionally while viewing the whole process with a self-conscious and slightly embarrassed eye.
The setting is a soon-to-open restaurant on the Upper East Side, where 30-something proprietor GG (Michael Solomon) is hosting a boy’s night out with his old college buddies. Kenny (Ken Matthews) is a new father who has come late, to say the least, to the drum-beating “men’s movement” popularized by Robert Bly; Dicky (Chris Thorn), who rejoices in the nickname Dicky Dog, is the perpetual adolescent of the group; Bo (Bard Goodrich) is a gay, good-natured musician; and Alan (Michael Szeles) is a yuppie lobbyist whose fetching mistress Christine (Megan McQuillan) unexpectedly crashes the boy’s club. Together they embark on a night of pizza, Jägermeister shots, and mutual recrimination, culminating in a ceremonial farewell to their lost youth.
Any play that features a gang of regular-guy types hugging and saying “I love you” is practically begging for trouble, but somehow this production navigates skillfully between the twin pitfalls of sappiness and easy mockery. The early scenes aren’t terribly promising, with lots of drinkin’, cussin’, and whoopin’ that corresponds more to popular clichés of maleness than to the genuine article. Happily, the play broadens and deepens as it goes along, and the cast, under Mark Armstrong’s vigorous direction, shows real vitality and comic flair. Dicky Dog is easily the showiest part, and Thorn’s combination of overbearing swagger and hangdog vulnerability suggests a taller, more macho Nathan Lane. Still, this is very much an ensemble piece, with Singer’s motley assemblage of characters revealing an underlying cohesion. We have no trouble believing that despite the disparate paths they’ve taken, these are real friends with a long and complicated history.
Presented by the Production Company
at Manhattan Theatre Source, 177 MacDougal St., NYC.
Nov. 7-29. Wed.-Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 3 and 8 p.m.
(212) 352-3101, (866) 811-4111, www.theatermania.com, or www.productioncompany.org.
Manhattan Theatre Source
Bard Goodrich, Ken Matthews, Megan McQuillan, Chris Thorn, Michael Solomon, Michael Szeles
Blair Singer
Mark Armstrong
April Bartlett
Dan Henry
Deanna Frieman
Barton Bishop
Jeff Meyers
The Production Company
Richard Hinojosa · November 12, 2008
“We choose our friends by those who best understand our suffering,” asserts Blair Singer in his very funny and touching new play The Most Damaging Wound. Singer’s take on friendships and coming to grips with manhood offers nothing that is particularly new but it is so well written and performed that it’s like watching one of your favorite movies that never fails to make you feel pleasantly nostalgic.
Singer admits in his dialogue that stories about college buddies coming back together never work out well, and this story is no exception—yet I could not help but enjoy watching it play out regardless. The plot is straightforward—five college buddies plan a reunion in which they intend on getting very drunk and then burning a box of memorabilia from their glory days. Kenny, the organizer of this guys’ night out, has just become a father and he is terrified that he’s not ready for the job ahead. His best friend Alan, a lobbyist for Big Bad Pharma, has been married with a kid for many years at this point. GG, who owns the still-under-construction restaurant they meet in, is an uptight, outcast type of guy. Dicky is the one that truly never grew up. He is loud and obnoxious in a lovable sort of way. His best friend was Bo, the rock star who had to get sober.
This night is designed to be a ritual of male bonding (lots of male bonding) and a rite of passage into manhood. They all, in one way or another, hold on to their glory days so this coming together is as much about reliving those days as letting go of them. Into the mix of this sausage party Singer throws a “hot chick” named Christine. She is there to meet with Alan and despite Kenny’s protests Dicky insists that Christine stay and stay she does. Her presence jacks up the tension and makes for a much more interesting evening than just boys being boys. Still, her presence doesn’t stop them from singing songs, drinking until they puke, and punching each other. In the end they say things that needed to be said for a long time and, released of these burdens, they can finally move on.
Singer’s script may very well be just another clone in a genre that’s done to death but I found his honesty and raw emotion very refreshing. His treatment of friendship is very well thought out and the relationships among the boys are marked by essential checks and balances. They support each other and knock sense into each other with equal veracity. Throughout the play he pulls them together with, for example, a sing along (What! Indigo Girls at a boy party? That was hard to swallow.) and then he tears them apart by revealing long held secrets and desires and this creates an atmosphere of exposed and vulnerable feelings. It is real roller coaster ride of emotion and elation. Along the way, Singer makes us laugh (and I laughed a lot) at their chest pounding and sexist attitudes.
Director Mark Armstrong does an amazing job staging this play in such a tiny playing area. His view of a boys’ night out that turns into a rite of passage plays out perfectly. April Bartlett’s set is simple and very effective at setting the scene.
The cast is outstanding! Their talent and effort make this play truly enjoyable. Honestly, without them the play may have struck me as more mundane. Ken Matthews plays Kenny from the heart. He sheds real tears and digs deep to find this character. Michael Szeles lends Alan the perfect emotional detachment and so does Bard Goodrich as Bo, that is until they both find their breaking points. Michael Solomon as GG plays the maturity of his character very well while Chris Thorn as Dicky does the complete opposite, both with very funny results. Finally, Megan McQuillan as Christine does an amazing job slowly breaking into this tightly knit group while still managing to be endearing and exposed.
The Most Damaging Wound is dramedy at its funny and touching best. It’ll make you want to call old friends and catch up. I know I did.
Copyright ©2008 The New York Theatre Experience, Inc. All rights reserved.
Come to our Preview TONIGHT for The Most Damaging Wound! Manhattan Theatre Source is a very lovely, very intimate space so please visit www.productioncompany.org to buy your tickets in advance and make sure to get a seat! Did we mention that we are supplying FREE beer and wine that you can drink while watching the show!! That’s right. So come have some fun with us tonight @ 8PM!!
Mary Cross and Megan McQuillan were invited by Martin Denton of NYtheatre.com to take part in a podcast this week to promote The Most Damaging Wound.
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| ©2007 The Production Company • Photo Credits • Site by dizzyk |
