Turns on the market are unhealthy seats in the home upstairs within the renovated Henry Murray Stage at Rogue Machine on the Matrix. I struggled to see round corners throughout sections of BABY FOOT and infrequently confronted actors’ backs within the theater spherical. Directed to just about each awkward nook, the play makes use of all obtainable house to set the rec room scene.
Reviewed by Tracey Paleo, Gia On the Move
Nevertheless, Hope Lauren, Daniel Dorr, and John Perrin Flynn turned out a powerful docent on drug use, fact, lies, and hard-knock penalties in Tim Venable’s West Coast Premiere. By the tip of all of it, Katy Perry’s, “Chained to the Rhythm” was echoing in my head.
It’s Alexis’s (Lauren) final night time in a rehab heart and she or he’s 90 days clear. But it’s Blackie’s (Dorr) first on the facility and he’s trying to latch onto anybody that may get him by it. Alexis couldn’t be a greater goal. She’s emotionally weak and anxious about her re-entrance into life on the surface. Plus, she’s “hot”. For Blackie, it’s a candy rating.
Blackie is an unrelenting, traditional manipulator. Wily, a bit gritty, and subversive, his junkie habits drives each little bit of the impulsiveness they each ultimately interact in. And Lauren can not assist herself however fall straight into his charms. Though she tries – aggressively – to fight his advances. But her will deteriorates as shortly because the night time progresses.
Alexis and Blackie dance to the distortion of seductive habit in Venable’s “Long Day’s Journey” rehab intersection. And, proper from the beginning, it’s clear from the second Blackie reveals up that Alexis’s bubble of hope for a sober future goes to burst. How violently, isn’t even a query. Venable doesn’t current the potential of many outcomes apart from failure for each of them on this situation. You may say that the setup comes on the very starting of the play.
Fred (Flynn), a rehab graduate-turned-30-year facility janitor, acts as a type of foil to Alexis as a mentor and buddy. In the opening scene, he guides and affirms Alexis in her journey. He can be giving her a delicate warning couched in his phrases. Fred’s stationary, “Watcher”-like dialogs and entrances inject a quiet however queasy comedian tragedy. He’s seen this identical storyline lots of of instances. Fred is the statistically, nearly unattainable success to the predictable conclusion right here. And Flynn performs this function to perfection.
Dorr is epic within the function of Blackie. Everything about his nuanced character work from talking inflection to physique language is so actual that you just’d nearly say, “experience”. Lauren as Alexis is all painful motion and response to Blackie’s corrosive jabs. Theirs is a scrumptious however unhappy tête à tête.
In BABY FOOT, playwright Tim Venable tracks the very brief lifespan of tried habit restoration. But doesn’t give us or his characters a lot hope for a brighter future. Even although Alexis and Blackie can briefly imagine within the lie that issues will get higher, it’s apparent, the cycle will go on and on and on 🎶.
RECOMMENDED
Rogue Machine Presents the West Coast Premiere of:
BABY FOOT
Written and Directed by Tim Venable
Featuring: Hope Lauren, Daniel Dorr & John Perrin Flynn
Production Design by Joe McClean and Dane Bowman
Sound Design by Leanna Keyes
Sound Consultation by Chris Moscatiello
Produced by John Perrin Flynn and Guillermo Cienfuegos
Stage Manager is Rachel Ann Manheimer
Photo by Jeff Lorch
Rogue Machine, within the Matrix Theatre, is positioned at 7657 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046. Reservations: https://www.roguemachinetheatre.org/ or for extra data 855-585-5185.
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