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Finer Noble Gases
By Jenny Sandman
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Dude, I'm such a good conversationalist. My words and images. My use of metaphor and freakish nouns.
--Chase Dude, you're like twitching all over the place. It's cool. ---Staples |
Robert Beitzel
& Paul Sparks
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Since Nocturne at New York Theatre Workshop, Rapp has gained quite the local following. He has a very New York aesthetic-gritty, urban, slangy. This Finer Noble Gases is a slightly different version than the one that premiered at the 2002 Humana Festival. It's less plot-driven than his Blackbird or Stone Cold Dead Serious, but just as macabre as Faster and Trueblinka. In Rapp's hands, even the macabre can be endearing, which perhaps accounts for some of his New York following.
Finer noble gases are those that do not readily attach to other elements to form a compound. And like these gases, the inert occupants of an East Village apartment cannot attach to each other or to their lives.
Staples and Chase spend their days taking drugs and watching TV. Their friend Speed lives on the floor, usually passed out. Lynch, possibly crazy, is off doing God-knows-what but returning periodically with strange finds. These former members of a rock band are so continually doped up that speaking is an effort for them, and judging by the state of their apartment, it's been many years since they were able to stand up, let alone clean it. Van Santvoord set is a near-perfect recreation of Lower East Side squalor. The walls are peeling, covered with graffiti, and sometimes punched in; the floor is covered with dirty clothing, bits of food and trash, drug detritus, and various body fluids; even the air seems dank and foul.
It's to Rapp's credit that he's able to spin a poignant play out of what amounts to mostly inane, drug-addled talk. Chase (Paul Sparks, most recently of Bug and Blackbird) is the most articulate and relatively normal of the bunch. When Lynch kicks in the TV, he's able to concoct a plan to con the downstairs neighbor out of his. He is loveable, in a scruffy sort of way and often unintentionally funny.
Revisiting their original Humana roles are Ray Rizzo as Speed and Robert Beitzel as Staples. Staples is Chase's partner in crime; while so stoned he's almost paralyzed, he makes an odd but appropriate foil. Their chemistry is one of the more lighthearted elements of this often morbid play. Lynch (Michael Chernus) seems one step away from becoming Leatherface, the infamous killer from Texas Chainsaw Massacre. His grip on reality is tenuous at best, but he's so baffled by the world that he becomes almost pitiable.
Director Michael John Garces (The Triple Happiness, Light Raise the Roof, Recent Tragic Events) handles the dark situation with aplomb. With his cast of mostly Rapp veterans he is able to showcase the playwright's writing rather than the seedy setting and graphic elements.
Be forewarned: this is not a play for the faint of heart. There is onstage nudity, urination, and vomiting, and a high-decibel performance by the rock band LESS at the end of the show. If that doesn't scare you, this is a thought-provoking, funny, sad, and well-acted play that typifies , and proves yet again Adam Rapp's strange genius.
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FINAL NOBLE GASES Written by Adam Rapp Directed by Michael John Garces Cast: Connor Barrett, Robert Beitzel, Michael Chernus, Ray Rizzo, and Paul Sparks Lighting Design by Ben Stanton Costume Design by Elizabeth Hope Clancy Set Design by Van Santvoord Sound Design by Eric Shim 9/14/04 to 10/24/04; opening 9/20/04 Wednesday through Saturday at 8 pm, Sunday at 7 pm. All tickets $37.50. Reviewed by Jenny Sandman based on September 18th performance |
Retold by Tina Packer of Shakespeare & Co.
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