Through February 21, 2010
Reviewed by Andrea Braun
If
anyone wants to know how to make a play critic proof, then I suggest you see Based
on a Totally True Story. In the very beginning, the main narrator, Ethan (John
Wolbers) tells us there’s nothing original about the piece at all. In the
Director’s Notes, the sneaky Robert A. Mitchell writes: “There are really no
deep concepts here. . . if you want that show, well. . . this is not that. What
it IS, is this: a bunch of fun.” Okay, guys, give a reviewer a break, will ‘ya?
You’re cutting off all of my potentially deep, insightful remarks on the
meaning of love and loss and the price of fame. Ha! That’s what you may think,
but you can’t force me to buy this play at face value entirely.
First
clue: Mitchell ALSO remarks: “What is fame worth? As Debbie Allen says in an
old ‘80s movie, ‘Well, fame costs.’” He also tells us that Ethan is a “semi-complex,
overly literate, comic-book-writing, Synge-inspired, cute, nerdy, enabling
guy.” Thanks, Bob, because it saves my having to describe him. Ethan is all
that, and even more. He’s a skittish boyfriend, a withholding son of a father
(Alan McClintock) who takes his kids to Sears for “important” conversations;
the one we witness being “I’m in love with another woman and leaving your
mother after 33 years.”
But
Roberto (Aguirre-Sacasa—the playwright) and Robert can’t provide all the
words, so yeah, I do have a few things to say. Ethan meets Michael (Michael
Perkins) in a coffee shop and they start dating. They hook up after a while and
move in together. Both are writers, Ethan works on the comic book, “The Flash”
who writes plays on the side, and Michael works at “The Village Voice” and is
working on a novel. Things are going pretty well until the day Mary Ellen
(Sarajane Alverson) contacts him. She’s one of those hard-driving Hollywood
stereotypes who must actually exist since we see them so often. At this point,
she’s a Julia Phillips who still gets invited to lunch. She works with her
unseen husband and they want to represent Ethan in selling his first play to
Hollywood. To the MOVIES. And we’re movin’ on up. . . .
Ethan
begins to learn how the biz works in the first of Mary Ellen’s frequent phone
calls. He can sell the story outright and let someone else adapt it, or he can
write the script himself, cooperating with changes the studio wants made. He
agrees to adapt it and so begins a danse macabre with the powers that be
(and some that don’t). He is overburdened with his day job, the script, his
relationship and his parents’ problems. There’s just not enough Ethan in the
day. Does this sound like a comedy? Well, it is, and it’s hilarious.
Much
of the narration breaks the fourth wall, and Michael and Ethan’s dad speak to
us too. But Ethan is our presumably reliable guide through his story and his
angst. Mary Ellen tells him “adult horror” is hot right now, so in an attempt
to familiarize himself with the genre, he stocks up Asian features like Ringu. He buys an expensive
upgrade for his MacBook (and has to deal with an officious clerk, one of the
several parts excellently rendered by Leo Gregory Stoff). Michael feels
neglected, and the irony here is that he is the one doing reasonably important
work, such as interviewing Joyce Carol Oates. I enjoyed all the jokes about
her prolific writing output, but she gave him some good advice about how to
enter the work and navigate through it.
Where
the play does get predictable (we were warned, remember) is Ethan’s trudge
through the minefields of work and home. And yet, it is amusing every step of
the way, even when we know what’s likely to come next. Aguirre-Sacasa just
“happens” to be a comic book writer/playwright himself, so it’s safe to assume
that the piece is, well, based on a totally true story. This is the third of
his plays seen in St. Louis in the past couple of years, and he’s an original
young voice in American theatre. If you’re a fan of the HBO series Big Love, you’ve seen his work.
(And HBO figures prominently here, as well.)
The
set uses every inch of the stage, with a shabby but comfortable looking
apartment. Conversations are often held out to the side, and Mitchell has saved
big bucks by hanging a cheap cloth screen upstage that shows slides of where we
are. It’s the apartment window, and it places us in many other locations, as
well. It even shows a credit run at the end. Mitchell is a master of the low
budget. Lighting by Tony Anselmo is fine, though a few pale spots exist. Sound
(by Mitchell and Perkins) is terrific, with incidental music themed to the show
and a running gag when anyone mentions “The Flash.”
The
whole cast delivers fine performances, though the focus is on Ethan most of the
time and Wolbers is more than up to the job. He is believable, relatable, and
we really do root for him. Perkins is the perfect foil, Alverson rocks Mary
Ellen who is savvy and sexy, and McClintock and Stoff provide fine support.
Mitchell’s direction is impeccable, and even if I don’t agree that it’s “just”
a bunch of fun, it certainly is that (and more).
Based
on a Totally True Story runs through Feb. 21 in the West End Players Guild theatre
in the basement of Union Avenue Christian Church. You may call 314-367-0025 or
visit www.westendplayers.org.
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