Review
bombs in your mouth
Cherry Lane Alternative
August 11, 2007
VanLoan
vanloan@nyconstage.org

Once again, the Rude Mechanicals Theater Company has made a terrific splash in this year's New York International Fringe Festival. After last year' engrossing I Coulda Been a Kennedy, company member Corey Patrick's new play bombs in your mouth while not as ambitious is just as entertaining.

You might be hard pressed to consider a play about the slow decline and ultimate death of a parent due to Alzheimer's disease entertaining. But Patrick's pitch black comedic writing and the sensational rapport between the actors (Patrick again and Cass Bugge) combine to make it just that.

This two-hander begins with the death of Lily (Bugge) and Danny's (Patrick) father. After a muddled eulogy, these half-siblings go back to the Minnesota house when Danny has taken care of his demented father for the last five years. Lily escaped/fled about the same time to New York City to work in advertising on Madison Ave. Seeing the two have not seen or spoken to each other since the initial departure, we know the situation is going to implode (especially after a beer chugging contest is used to break the ice).

It's in the details that this one act (about 70 minutes) really comes vibrantly alive. From the sloppy mid-Western living room with its wood paneling and afghan coverlets, the scenic design is a perfect picture of two men (one insane and the other slowing getting there) living together. Patrick's blistering dialogue perfectly captures the anger and ridiculousness of the reunion while slowly uncovering the yearning for forgiveness that the half brother and sister have for each other (Lily initially refuses to sleep in Danny's room because it will "smell like boy"). But where Patrick's writing really shines is in that uncomfortable, ambiguous space over the death of a despised, abusive parent. Little sentimentality on either Danny or especially Lily's part is wasted on their father despite the disintegration of his mind (his memoirs/ last will and testament is written on a roll of toilet paper). Their boozy recriminations and long simmering resentments ignite like dry timber in the sun.

Cass Bugge and Corey Patrick are a perfect match. From wolfing spaghetti (not 'pasta', it's the mid-West after all; another spot-on reference) together with a single spoon or arm wrestling to see who will go to the store for more beer, we feel the are both cut from the same cloth despite different upbringings. The fact that both their lives have momentarily hit the skids (especially after a cataclysmic incident of Danny's doing) makes us feel the pain of an unfulfilled, unfocused life caused by the indifferent cruelty of their father. Joseph Ward's muscular direction keeps us ever focused on the pain beneath the absurdly comic in an almost Chekhovian manner. Bombs in your mouth is an early highlight in the 2007 Fringe Festival.

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