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A CurtainUp Los Angeles Review
Dark Play or Stories for Boys
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Dark Play is a kind of game where certain players know the rules and other players don't.— Mrs. Spiegel
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The play begins in Nick's college dorm room when his first girlfriend asks him about the scars on his midriff. "Do I tell her the truth or do I do what I do so well? Make shit up?" he muses. The story he tells the girl takes her into that chat room where his 14-year-old self has become disillusioned with cyber sex and the awesome response to fake seduction ads. When he comes across a naively worded ad from 16-year-old Adam, reading "I want to fall in love", he's blown away. What is this love? He has to find out. He knows Adam won't tell him because Adam is looking for a fantasy girl. So Nick becomes Rachel and Adam does fall in love. What follows is as predictable and tragic as Cyrano de Bergerac and as melodramatic as something you'd expect a 14-year-old comic book junkie to create. On the other hand, he could easily have lived it.
Stewart W. Calhoun makes Nick credibly precocious and heartbreakingly vulnerable. Adam Haas Hunter brings Adam from innocence to corruption with wide-eyed subtlety. They're ably supported by Danielle K. Jones as Rachel/Molly, the fantasy modeled on Nick's real life love or vice versa, and Johnathan McClain and Bethany Pagliolo in a variety of parts. One of my favorites was Pagliolo's cop, Olivia, who, while goading Adam into retribution, corrects his grammar and spelling.
Murillo has an aptitude for skewering today's culture through piercing literate dialogue and credible, sad and questing characters. It's material that brings out the best in Michael Michetti's intuitive direction.
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DARK PLAY OR STORIES FOR BOYS Playwright: Carlos Murillo Director: Michael Michetti Cast: Stewart W. Calhoun (Nick), Danielle K. Jones (Molly/Rachel), Johnathan McClain (Male Netizen), Adam Haas Hunter (Adam), Bethany Pagliolo (Female Netizen) Set Design: Donna Marquet Video Design: Austin Switser Lighting Design: Lap-Chi Chu Costume Design: Rachel Myers Sound Design: Cricket S. Myers Running Time: One hour 40 minutes, no intermission Running Dates: October 13-November 18, 2007 Where: The Theatre@Boston Court, 70 Mentor Street, Pasadena, CA, Reservations: (626) 683-6883. Reviewed by Laura Hitchcock on October 12. |
Easy-on-the budget super gift for yourself and your musical loving friends. Tons of gorgeous pictures.
Leonard Maltin's 2007 Movie Guide
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