Art imitates life and in some ways virtually repeats it -- in afunny, racy way in Buffalo United Artists' production of "RecoveryMode," Matthew Burlingame's comic retelling of a true-ish "love/hate" story by Matthew Crehan Higgins.
The show is given a measure more verisimilitude by having Higginsplay himself, a young man struggling to get over, get past -- to recover from -- a rocky love affair that can't work but won't end. As he tells his therapist, "Every breakup was epic. It made Mel Gibson look sane."
Higgins' version of the story originally was a monologue. To maintain the introspection that offers, Burlingame adds the therapist to the mix. It allows stage "Matt" to occasionally turn back to "Susan" (played jovially by Victoria Perez), with explanatory asides even while in the throes of passion, anger or frustration with the other characters.
It works better than you might expect, but we never escape the sense that this is pretty much a one-man show accessorized by less-realized supporting figures.
Higgins doesn't spare himself in the telling, behaving as irrationally as anyone else trying to justify their behavior. Matt starts his ill-advised love affair with a closeted bisexual named Tom (Gary Andrews) via a hookup made through a three-minute Internet courtship. Tom is everything Matt doesn't want in a boyfriend, but he wants him more than anything. He quotes the movie line "They had nothing in common except each other," noting that in his case it became a horror movie.
Inevitably, things don't go well between these fellows withnothing in common. As Matt tells it to Susan, the problems can besquarely placed on Tom's refusal to change for him, to be someonehe's not, to come out, to publicly embrace his sexuality and Mattalong with it.
A story told from Matt's perspective can't help but leave Tom ina lurch, and Andrews isn't given quite enough to do beyond a few sharp words and close encounters of a lustful kind. He does open Act II with a musical performance, a quick glimpse of who Tom might be when not in bed.
On the other hand, Marc Sacco -- as "Mark" -- energizes everyscene he's in, as he may indeed have done when the "true story" washappening. He's relentless in trying to shake Matt out of his funk, doing everything but pulling on a Cher wig to slap him and tell him to "Snap out of it!"
"I don't even recognize you anymore," he tells Matt. Off to the side, Susan agrees, pointing out that it's time Matt realized he is turning himself into a victim, and after a few lines of heavy psycho speak, she throws up her hands and tells him to "Own your s---!"
Life after Tom includes some other brief relationships for Matt, one on a road trip to Rochester, another over a summer at Chautauqua Lake, with Sean Murphy playing the interchangeable love interests. But always in the background is the one who got away -- all the way up until someone else catches him.
Matt's psychologically introspective blame game -- with its promiscuous interludes for comic and sexual relief -- eventually brings him to a new self-awareness and acceptance, if not healing.
"Recovery Mode" captures the universal qualities of a badbreakup, framed here in the gay culture of today's Buffalo. Thehumor and narrative come packaged with strong sexual content andplenty of profanity, but sometimes that's how stories of love andhate play out.
e-mail: mmiller@buffnews.com
***
"Recovery Mode"
2 1/2 stars (out of 4)
WHEN: Through July 17
WHERE: Buffalo United Artists, 119 Chippewa St.
TICKETS: $23 general, $20 seniors, $18 BUA members, $15 students
INFO: 886-9239, www.buffalobua.org
No comments:
Post a Comment