Monday, June 06, 2011

Le Mofo Mit le Chapeau

You know, I was not interested in seeing this play, The Motherf**ker with the Hat.

Someone said something about, “All that screaming and the cursing. Who wants to hear all that cursing?”

Well, it turns out, I DO!

The play was fantastic. Simple story of betrayal between friends with their girlfriends. But that was not really the important part of it. The important part was the language. The rapid fire, I’m going at you, full tilt, some sort of 1975 thing, but more self aware, raw, low class, sweaty, “When you gonna get me that two family house in Yonkers?” kind of smart train wreck.

It was tight.

It is worth seeing.

It made clear that recovery is anything but, that life is harsh.

The cast is brilliant. Booby Cannevale is full-on. Chris Rock plays a great smoothie. And then there’s Yul Vazquez, the weird cousin. More please. Elizabeth Rodriguez screams herself horse but rides like a young colt. Annabella Sciorra, well, guess she needed a gig. But she was good. Fine.

I didn’t get for a minute that anyone really loved anyone. The anger and disappointment stuff were the primary notes. Whole tones here. Again, didn’t matter---because the writing was so good and the acting was, if not nuanced, damn focused.

Stephen Adly Guirgis has a great name and a great talent. Anna D. Shapiro directed it tight and ballsy.

Glad they did this thing. It was one of the most vital things I’ve seen in a long time.

Not too much changed. Everyone learned a little bit, practiced being a person another bit of time. Poetic. Gray and dirty. See it. And see it with this cast.

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