Reviews 2011
Reviews 2011
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Woody Harrelson and Frankie Hyman, directed by Woody Harrelson
Woody Harrelson and Children at Play Productions,
Hart House Theatre, Toronto
April 21-May 7, 2011
The subtitle for Bullet for Adolf, by actor Woody Harrelson and writer Frankie Hyman, is “Almost a Comedy.” To be more accurate, that should be changed to “Almost a Sitcom”. If you know Harrelson only from his roles in films like Natural Born Killers, The People vs. Larry Flynt, The Messenger or Defendor, you won’t be prepared for the unmitigated simple-mindedness of this play. If, however, you recall that Harrelson spent 11 seasons on the sitcom Cheers (1982-93), his point of reference for playwriting becomes clear.
The portentous publicity for the show states, “In the hot Houston summer of 1983, friendships are formed that may withstand secrets, stereotypes, and betrayal. But can they withstand a blast from the past?” This suggests that the play actually deals with serious issues and real people. It doesn’t. Harrelson and Hyman create a group of seven two-dimensional twentysomethings who do nothing but wisecrack and insult each other for two hours. Three couples form, but otherwise there is no plot. The question of who has the gun with the bullet meant for Hitler is simply a ruse to get us to come back after intermission for more of the same.
Basically, the play is about the friendship of a Southern white guy Zach (Brandon Coffey) and and African-American guy Frankie (Ronnie Rowe), who meet in Houston on a construction job. While getting laid and drunk are Zach’s main goals, Frankie at least wants some romance to go with sex. Both are good at following Harrelson’s direction towards a very broad acting style where most lines are shouted, but both clearly could play more subtly if asked. The playwrights surround these two with various zany “characters.” The most obnoxious is Dago-Czech (Billy Petrovski), a white guy who, for totally unknown reasons, talks and acts like a black guy. It’s a one-joke character, but Petrovski does that one joke very well. The playwrights have little interest in the women except as potential lays for the men, so that the only difference between Batina (Vanessa Smythe) and Jackie (Tashieka McTaggart) is that one is white and the other black.
The scene changes are covered by a wonderful collection of TV clips of news, advertisements and music videos from the 1980s which we can only view with a sense of bemusement and irony. Sadly, the play itself makes no reference to 1980s and has no ambitions of satirizing or summing up a generation. Its meagre goal is to be as much like a cable sitcom as possible--and that, in itself, is almost a tragedy.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2011-04-22.
Photo: David Coomber, Ronnie Rowe, Billy Petrovski and Brandon Coffey. ©Sophie Girard.
2011-04-22
Bullet for Adolf