-
- Liz and Mark are expecting their first child
and they are letting her brother Stitch stay with them for an
indeterminate time and sleep on the settee, a metaphor which later
becomes an important part of the story. She's excited about the
baby (Bump - she calls it) and Mark is uncertain about the future but
is trying to get used to the enormous change they will soon be facing.
Stitch has left the safety of his mother's knitting shop in Withernsea
for a more varied gay scene in the town of Hull, where he is
introduced to Mad Dave, a man in a penguin suit working at aquarium to
draw the kids in. Stitch has a brief encounter with him but we
later see Dave as a cynical, self serving individual who is out for
himself only.
-
- Even though the couple seems to be the main
focus, the story is more about Mark and Stitch. The brother is
unable to define his life, and Brendan Hunt gives a strong performance
in a role that mixes humor, uncertainty and depression depicting
Stitch's struggles to find a reason for being. There is a scene
early in the play where Stitch refuses to let anyone use the bathroom
(the loo) because he has hidden the penguin there. This serves
to underscore his frame of mind and the erratic thought process he is
suffering. James Donovan is very believable as the
prospective father who really does not know how the future will turn
out. There is a marked contrast in the attitudes of the two men,
yet they face a future that could be terrifying in different ways and
each has a monumental internal struggle to resolve it. Mina Badie
makes a charming pregnant mother, easy going and very eager to give
birth and very sympathetic to the issues facing both men.
Dave's character is captured by Johnny Giacalone,
who in spite of looking silly in the penguin suit manages to come off
like an odious, self serving jerk. The kind of guy you love to
dislike.
You have to really listen hard as the actors adopt
a British working class accent (which at times is completely
indiscernible) so you may miss some sentences here and there.
Also, the dialog gets somewhat slow at the end of the first act and in
mid-second act, and coupled with the dialect, there are things that are
"lost in translation". You have to guess, not so much what they
said but why.
So you get to see a part of life not usually
familiar on this side of the pond. People have similar problems,
but their attitudes are different and the resolutions may not be as we
would have them. Yet, it's a charming little story that shows how
people feel when they are out of their element - much like a little
penguin in a bathroom thousands of miles from its homeland.
Plays through March 6, 2011. The Lost
Studio, 130 South La Brea Ave. Los Angeles. 323-960-7721
