![]() ![]() It's not long before we think we do, too.īest of all is the character of Mason Marzac (Jeffrey Hutchinson), the mousy middle-aged accountant who falls passionately in love with baseball, just as Greenberg did. He doesn't speak their languages, Kippy assures the bemused Jason, but he knows what they're saying. There's the wonderful scene in which Kippy (Jeffrey Nordling) translates for rookie Jason (Bryce Johnson) the Japanese and Hispanic dialogue of the other players. Greenberg finds all kinds of ways to deepen and broaden his characters. The gag about the gay guys in the hall doesn't work the second time around, especially in the serious context of the scene, but who can quibble with a play that contrasts "people of color" with "people of pallor" in such unforgettable ways and phrases? However, this is no simple thriller and neither is it a flawless play. The violent reactions of the two men escalate to a murderous frenzy, as does the dramatic suspense. Nor should he be surprised that his evangelical best friend Davey Battle (Morocco Omari), also African-American, tells him he misunderstood Battle's mandate to tell the truth, righteously denying he knew, much less meant, That Awful Truth.Īt first the unbelieving Darren seems merely petulant and outraged but as the plot thickens, he's stunned by the racial and sexual slurs pronounced with equal assurance by the uneducated Southerner, Shane Mungitt (Jeremy Sisto), who can't do anything but throw a baseball. It shouldn't surprise him that his teammates in the locker room feel uncomfortable showering with him now. ![]() When Darren Lemming (Terrell Tilford), the drop-dead gorgeous African-American baseball superstar, announces at a press conference that he's gay with the casual ease of an untouchable Golden Boy who's always been admired and adored, he opens a Pandora's box he didn't know was there. Equally apt is Mason Marzac's line, "Democracy is wonderful but baseball is more mature." This year it sounds so political that it could have been written last month - witness the quote at the top of this page. Take Me Out is true patriotism, meaning philosophical rather than jingoistic." "In its purest sense," Denis agreed " but not the current awful way it's being misused. When I interviewed Denis O'Hare, Tony-winner for the original Mason Marzac, last year, the first adjective that occurred to me to describe this play, which uses baseball as a metaphor for America, was patriotic. In The Dazzle he used his favorite three-character cast and the oft-told historical tale of the reclusive Collier brothers to probe with crystal scalpel the mysteries of personality. In Three Days of Rain he used three actors to play six characters in two different eras to illustrate, among other points, the effect of the past. He's written some bombs but when he's on, he's on. No living playwright is as versatile as Greenberg. And it's absolutely essential to review Richard Greenberg's brilliant funny 2003 Tony-winning Pulitzer Prize-nominated play in its new incarnation at The Geffen Playhouse's temporary venue, The Brentwood Theatre. We reviewed it in London, we reviewed it in New York. Enlightened is when all standards go to hell.
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