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Cast: Mark................John Herring Robbie................Eric Werner Lulu................Michelle Martin Brian................Thomas Benton Gary................Nicholas Sieben
Director................Danielle Fauteux Jacques |
Bay Windows Review
March 23 - March 29, 2000
Staying alive, or notby Robert NestiTheatreZone production of Mark Ravenhill's 'Shopping and F... ing' brims
with humor and horror
'Shopping and F... ing,' by Mark Ravenhill, presented by the TheatreZone, at the Actors Workshop, Boylston Street, Boston, through April 8. When ÒShopping and F... ingÓ had its Boston premiere last year in a production at the BCA, it was something of an oddityÑa nasty look at the underside of Gen-X culture served up with enough angst to rob it of any life whatsoever. While British playwright's Mark Ravenhill's text suggested films like ÒTrainspottingÓ and ÒGo,Ó its lively texture somehow got lost in a production marred by the moralizing tone of its concept and some truly horrendous acting. And that production all but imploded when it was announced that the cast had irreconcilable differences and couldn't proceed with the run. In retrospect, a smart career move by all involved. If you saw that production, or were curious about the play, then by all means catch its new version presented by the TheatreZone at the Actors Workshop in the Combat Zone through April 8. With a breezy brazenness, the young cast bring this outsized contemporary satire to vivid life. Their off-hand delivery of Ravenhill's over-the-top narrative, which includes numerous scenes of sexual degradation and drug taking played against a nasty commentary on commercialism in today's society, is something to see. Certainly David Mamet comes to mind, especially early on in a tersely written scene between a seedy television producer and a hungry young actress in search of a job; but also talents as diverse as Sam Shepard, Quentin Tarantino, and Doug Liman, the talented director of ÒSwingersÓ and ÒGo.Ó Ravenhill mixes these elements with real style, sometimes going to extremes in the process, but the effect is both shocking and deliriously funny. And it is served up by this young cast with such an assured style that it brims with kinetic energy all its own. Imagine an episode of ÒFriendsÓ as imagined by Irvine (ÒTrainspottingÓ) Welsh and you'll begin to understand just how trangressive this play really is. His story centers on a group of down-and-out 20-something Londoners. In the opening scene, Mark, a junkie in the throes of drug withdrawal, is being cared for by Robbie, his lover, and Lulu, Robbie's former lover. But he can't hack it and decides to go to a detox center. In the next scene, Lulu auditions for a television producer, Gary, for a spot plugging products on his home shopping network, But she's barely allowed to speak at all; instead, Gary goes on and on about ÒThe Lion King,Ó obsessed with the father and son relationship in that film. (He cries at the very mention of certain scenes in the film.) When he discovers that she's shoplifted some frozen TV dinners, he all but blackmails her into performing a reading with her shirt removed (a speech about the value of work from Chekhov's ÒUncle Vanya,Ó no less). Then sends her out to sell 300 hits of Ecstacy at London club that night. When that assignment is given to the flighty Robbie, it proves disastrous, leaving the pair one week to get the money up before Gary's henchmen appear with an electric drill to perform some ÒSopranoÓ-style surgery on them. Humiliating fantasies Meanwhile Mark takes up with Brian, a 14-year-old hustler with some very serious father issues that play out in a humiliating sexual fantasy involving a screwdriver. They end up back with Robbie and Lulu, who have taken to running numerous phone sex lines to raise money. They are also willing to service Brian's needs, for a price, bringing the play to a conclusion with a tense scene of sexual game playing and humiliation. Obviously this isn't a play for everyone's tastes. Ravenhill's intent is to shock, and no doubt many will either be offended or put off by his expressive style. Yet he is a very shrewd and funny writer whose dark sensibilities contain a stinging indictment of a culture where sentimentality and crass commercialism go hand-in-hand. His commentary on Disney's exploitation of primal emotions is alone well worth the price of admission. Perhaps it goes to unnecessary extremes at times, especially in its portrayal of Brian, the hustler with a nasty death wish; but Ravenhill's clearly a playwright with a genuine voice that speaks to the alienation of today's youth with real spunk and humor. And it is quite nicely put across by this production, directed by Danielle Fauteux Jacques, who never allows the peachiness that so marred its previous incarnation to intrude here. The cast read Ravenhill's text with a kind of colloquial dead pan that deadens any moralizing. It's a smart approach, augmented by the use of everyday American accents. There no pretentious attempt at British inflectionsÑthe play could be taking place in Chelsea, Massachusetts, where, coincidently, this company has its home base, as well as Chelsea, England, a fact that Jacques understands and plays to. Even the occasional British reference doesn't seem out of placeÑyou accept the situations far more readily here because of the actors are allowed to develop their characters without a ffect. The cast is uniformly strong. John Herring brings a measured, sympathetic edge to Mark, the junkie who is lost to the jargon of 12-step programs when he's not lost to drugs. Eric Werner nicely captures the little lost boy quality of Robbie; Michelle Martin is sharply in tune with Lulu's perverse nature; Nicholas Sieben smartly keeps Brian from becoming a caricature of a street hustler; and, best of all, Thomas Benton turns Gary into a great comic monster. It is a startling performanceÑugly, funny, and volatileÑin perfect conjunction with Ravenhill's Tarentino-like concept for the character. This is the third production I've seen by this company in this space, and I have to say that with it they achieve something specialÑan oversized, black comic book of a play that seems ripped from today's headlines. |
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