Dead Boys
Reviewed by Neal Weaver
Celebration Theatre Company
Through July 31
RECOMMENDED
Matthew Scott Montgomery’s play is not nearly as grim as its title suggests. Beneath its melodramatic sci-fi post-apocalyptic trappings, it’s basically a tender and touching love story.
Levi, played by writer Montgomery, is a sweet-natured gay boy who has always faced rejection and discrimination because of his “flamboyant” behavior. He was excluded from a musical group in his Catholic high school as “a poor role model,” chased and beaten up by his school-mates, and finally disowned by his parents.
Now, some years later, his world has been visited by some terrible but undefined disaster, which has destroyed most of civilized life, including the power grid. And some malign force, referred to only as “they,” makes it unsafe to be out after dark. Levi is living on his own, in a secret room in the basement of his old school, scavenging the means of survival as best he can from the ruined city around him. Returning to his lair on Christmas Eve, he discovers Carter (Andrew Puente), an old acquaintance, lying unconscious in the school’s gymnasium. He drags/carries Carter back to his hideaway, which by some curious chance still has power, enabling him to have a lighted Christmas tree.
When Carter regains consciousness, he proves to be angry and truculent, and declares that Levi is attempting to hold him prisoner. He demands the key to the locked door so he can leave. Levi insists that it is unsafe to go out before daylight. Carter tries to take the key by force, till Levin subdues him with pepper-spray. Once Carter accepts the fact that he is stuck there till morning, they begin to talk. Details of their stormy past life emerge, and the two prove far more alike than they seem. By finely delineated degrees, they work their way to a mutual acceptance and even love.
There is much excellent writing in Montgomery’s play, despite the unlikelihood of the undefined menace. (Terrence McNally used a similar mechanism in his play Things That Go Bump in the Night.)
Director Christopher James Raymond has cast it well, and gives it a sensitive and skillful production.
And the two actors provide finely nuanced performances. Montgomery’s Levi is achingly vulnerable, and Puente slowly reveals the fears and insecurities beneath his tough exterior.
Celebration Theatre at the Lex, 6760 Lexington Avenue, Hollywood. Sunday, 7 p.m.; Monday-Tuesday, 8 p.m.; No performances 7/15, 7/16, 7/17, 7/24. (323) 957-1884(323) 957-1884(323) 957-1884957-1884 or www.CelebrationTheatre.com. Running time: 75 minutes with no intermission.
