Jack, Lancaster and Wesley Guimarães (Photo by Jeff Lorch)
Reviewed by F. Kathleen Foley
Electric Lodge
Thru March 30
RECOMMENDED
After witnessing an act of bullying firsthand, Sophie Swithinbank was inspired to write Bacon, now in its West Coast premiere at Rogue Machine. Clocking in at 80 minutes, this two-hander may be compact in length, but it is dramatically dense in its densely dramatic portrayal of adolescent angst, sexual ambiguity, parental abuse, poverty, and the overwhelming peer pressure that can derail a young life
Despite widespread online anti-bullying initiatives, the atavistic tendency of certain teenage boys tends towards the savage. Such brutality may stem from adolescent confusion and angst. Or perhaps something darker.
For Darren (Jack Lancaster), brutality is a question of survival Darren is an archetypal “bad boy” who persistently flouts authority and fears no one — that is, except his widowed, drug-addicted father, who viciously beats Darren whenever he gets into trouble — a regular occurrence. In his peer group, however, Darren is feared and respected, traits that make him particularly attractive to Mark (Wesley Guimarães), a lonely, brainy newcomer to their inner-city London Catholic school. Mark’s well-meaning single mother mistakenly believes the transfer will offer him a fresh start, buffering him from the endemic violence of their urban neighborhood.
Although Darren brags of his sexual exploits and belittles Mark as a “fag,” he is himself sexually conflicted, unable to have sex with his eager girlfriend when the opportunity arises. Motivated by loneliness and emotional isolation, Darren and Mark form a perverse bond that ultimately skews into violence and sexual coercion — a harrowing turn with long-term emotional consequences that may never be overcome.
Set in the present day, the play unfolds in a series of flashbacks. Christopher Moscatielleo’s essential sound design, with its whooshing water effects, effectively mirrors the psychic state of the characters, who are swamped in a rising tide of rampaging hormones and sexual ambiguity. In a tightly compressed staging, director Michael Matthews builds the action to harrowing intensity (although why, during scene breaks, do the performers repeatedly shift furniture to no apparent effect?)
As Darren, a strutting bantam with a raptor’s destructive nature, Lancaster is alternately abhorrent and sympathetic, while Guimarães’s cerebral, solitary Mark shatters us with the intensity of his need — and his utter defenselessness. Bacon, most powerfully, is a cautionary tale for parents, who may never get a clue to their children’s secret lives until it is too late.
Rogue Machine at the Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Ave., L.A. Fri. and Mon., 8 pm; Sat.-Sun., 5 pm; thru March 30. No performance Feb. 10. https://roguemachine.ludus.com 80 minutes, no intermission.
