TASTE

Reviewed by Pauline Adamek

RECOMMENDED

Two men meet on the Internet and forge an unholy pact.

Screen and television writer Benjamin Brand’s first play, Taste, is based on a bizarre, true-crime episode from 2001, for which a German man named Armin Meiwes was convicted and eventually sentenced to life imprisonment.

Every grisly detail of the actual event was videotaped, so Taste is a factual play that reenacts the meeting between the two men and powerfully unfolds in real time.

It’s chilling stuff, yet it’s also inexplicably hilarious.

Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator: The Musical, based on his cult horror film) directs this unusual play brilliantly, finding laughs within the disturbing storyline. Right from the start Brand establishes numerous details about his characters and Gordon includes several sight gags, yet it’s a credit to Gordon and his fine actors that the performances never tip over into camp territory.

We first meet Terry (Donal Thoms-Cappello), a slightly fey fellow and enthusiastic cook, who lives in a spacious and stylishly decorated urban bachelor pad. He’s so fastidious he even has a coaster on his granite counter for his vodka bottle. In fact, DeAnne Millais’ stunningly-detailed and expensive-looking scenic design — complete with a well-equipped, working kitchen — helps us form a strong impression of the character who inhabits this luxe dwelling, even before the play commences. Then, in the play’s opening scene, our first impression is confirmed as Terry listens to an LP recording of an exquisite aria while expertly dicing and frying an onion. Plus, we gain the olfactory (and auditory) pleasure of the frying onion, unaware of its foreshadowing.

Next we meet the other character in this one-act two-hander, the portentously named Vic, played by Chris L. McKenna. Vic is awkward, nervous, and somewhat schlubby and goofy: he seems far less refined than Terry. Lines such as “You don’t quite look like your photo…” suggest that this is a first date for a pair who’ve met on the Internet. The men dine and toast “To seeing things through,” and another ominous note is sounded.

As Vic, McKenna does a marvelous job of conveying all the emotional complexities and nuances of the encounter he willingly undertakes. Thoms-Cappello’s emotional journey also undulates, but on a slightly different trajectory; together the performances intersect and ebb and flow like a beautifully orchestrated duet. It’s masterful writing.

This macabre comedy is also searingly visceral, complete with sexually explicit scenes and jets of gore. Taste is gross, yet riotous, and definitely not for the squeamish.

Sacred Fools Theater Company, 660 N Heliotrope Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90004, Thursdays-Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 7pm, Through May 17, 2014. 18+. (310) 281-8337. www.sacredfools.org.