Hope Lauren (Photo by Jeff Lorch)
Reviewed by Martin Hernandez
Rogue Machine at the Matrix Theatre
Through November 30
RECOMMENDED
Budding musician Alexis (Hope Lauren) is leaving the Pacific Northwest recovery home that has been her refuge for the last ninety days. Sober and primed for a new life, her last night at the center is rudely interrupted by the arrival of Blackie (Daniel Dorr), who has one day of sobriety and needs an attitude adjustment. Alexis, reluctant at first, rises to the challenge, intoning that there is more to the Alcoholics Anonymous’ platitudes to whichshe adheres but which Blackie mocks. He parries Alexis’s hardhearted advice with cynical abandon, setting them up for a battle of wills that may leave them both devastated.
Playwright/director Tim Venable’s psychological study makes it clear that recovery is not easy — or pretty. Venable skims over the possible demons that led our twenty-something protagonists to drinks and drugs and focuses on their effects. Alexis and Blackie act them out on cue in a raw psychological struggle.
Alternating between biting insults, attempts at empathy, and dark humor, their behavior is endemic to those in recovery. Under Venable’s able direction, Lauren and Dorr make a woefully believable pair of addicts. Lauren exudes an arrogant exterior that hides her desperate vulnerability, while Dorr’s Blackie is a credible mix of boyish posturing and masculine angst. Their foosball table matches, manifesting their symbiotic traumas, are both comic and revealing of addictive thinking.
Mostly unseen, the center’s graveyard janitor. Fred (Paul DeBoy) — whose habit began with his service in Vietnam — pops in at critical moments, adding both comic relief and wisdom from decades in recovery. His monologue, late in the play, on the vagaries of life in sobriety is an understated and powerful moment, with DeBoy’s taciturn delivery elevating its poignancy.
Production designers Joe McClean’s and Dane Bowman’s interior is suitably shabby, replete with secondhand furniture, myriad coffee cups for the residents, and AA posters and brochures arrayed around the intimate performance space. The audience is close enough to witness the actors’ reactions, creating an authentic dynamic.
As far as addiction stories go, Venable doesn’t really cover any new ground, harkening instead to a fundamental tenet of twelve-step programs: No matter how often one stumbles, “Keep coming back; it works, if you work it….”
Rogue Machine, Henry Murray Stage, The Matrix Theatre,7657 Melrose Ave., Hollywood. Fri., 7 pm, Sat.-Sun., 5 pm, Mon., 8 pm, no perf. Mon., Oct. 16 & 30; thru Nov. 30; https://www.roguemachinetheatre.org Running time: 80 minutes with no intermission.
