Wild Son: The Testimony of Christian Brando
Reviewed by Stephen Fife
Champ Clark Presents
Through May 26
My fear, before seeing Wild Son: The Testimony of Christian Brando, was that this would simply be a rehashing of the many scandals surrounding Christian’s father Marlon Brando and the Brando family. My hope was that I would get some insight into the tragic downfall of the Brando family that would also make for an exciting stage experience. The result is a mixed bag, with the two best-known scandals of Christian’s life dominating this one-man play, though the presentation has a seriousness that claims our attention and a central performance that keeps raising our expectations.
This 60-minute show was written and directed by Champ Clark, a personal acquaintance of Christian Brando’s. As he informs us in a program note, his play is based on taped interviews with his subject during the last three years of his life (2005-2008). This gives its twists and turns an authenticity of tone that is admirable. Now if Clark only had a larger vision of Christian Brando’s life than a recounting of biographical facts, he would really have something. Then again, these biographical facts are pretty mind-blowing.
We first meet Christian Brando (John Mese) as a ruggedly-handsome, isolated man sitting on a chair in the afterlife. “I haven’t seen my dad here yet,” he tells us, locating us in his central love/hate relationship with dad Marlon Brando. Christian was the oldest of Marlon’s eleven children, and his childhood was truly horrific. His parents hated each other, and Christian became a pawn in their warfare.
The first third of Christian’s monologue is the strongest because it feels fresh and authentic, with Christian emerging as a modern-day Huck Finn, surviving by his wits while having adventures and avoiding any attempts to “civilize” him. And just as Huck’s most dangerous enemy was his own dad, so Christian’s main battle for survival is with Marlon, who had the power of Zeus. So when his dad learns that his oldest son at 13 is screwing his nanny (nine times in one night) and has swiped a huge amount of primo weed from his pal Jack Nicholson, he banishes Christian to the island he owns near Tahiti, forcing him to spend his days clearing brush and his nights isolated from friends, family and pretty much everything else.
Later on we get the much-ballyhooed scandals — Christian shooting his half-sister Cheyenne’s boyfriend to death for beating her during her pregnancy (according to Cheyenne), for which he served five years in prison; and the Bonnie Lee Bakley fiasco, with Bakley claiming, before she was murdered, that Christian might be the father of her daughter instead of Robert Blake. These were both huge media stories at the time, and the show doesn’t offer much new material or insight. There are wonderful descriptions of how beautiful the world appeared to Christian after serving his time in prison. I just wish there were also more unexpected perspectives, surprising vistas opened up that would have deepened our understanding of who Christian was — or could have been had he been able to escape his famous father’s shadow.
Throughout the ups and downs of this picaresque adventure, one thing is constant: John Mese’s performance. This well-traveled TV character actor (recurring on Profiler and American Gothic, guesting on X-Files, CSI, Sex and The City and many others) proves that he has serious acting chops, and I highly recommend his performance to those who appreciate superior live stage work.
My sense is that his acting would be even more remarkable if the play expanded into the tragic modern myth that it feels like it wants to be. Christian Brando was short-shrifted by life, stunted by forces he was unable to withstand, much less control. It would be wonderful to see him get his afterlife story told in a way that confers on him the tragic hero status he deserves.
Santa Monica Playhouse, 1211 4th St., Santa Monica; Sun., 5:30 p.m.; through May 26. wildson.brownpapertickets.com. Running time: 60 minutes with no intermission.
