Boy’s Life

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

Tucked away in a shopping center on W. Colfax, The Event Center shows great promise as one of Denver’s newest production sites. Shared by Ken Crow’s The “E” Project and Pat Payne’s Spotlight Theatre, The “E” Project currently features Howard Korder’s coming of age play Boy’s Life. Under the direction of Jeremy Make, Boy’s Life is the first production for The “E” Project in their new home.

As a community theatre surrounded by stiff competition, The Event Center deserves attention.

Written in 1988, this unnerving Pulitzer Prize-nominated play revolving around three heterosexual males struggling to find themselves and their purpose in life, lives within the warfare of raging hormones.

We’re introduced to the three long-time friends in one of their apartments attempting to party in the midst of obnoxious confusion. Jack (Andy Raney) greased with male bravado in a stance that says “I’m the one in control” shows definite signs of being the least immature. He’s married with a child fighting an eye infliction called “roving.” Phil (Sean Donahue) on the floor with a happy go-lucky silly grin is lost in reverie of earphones, a bottle of beer and a pot smoking pipe. The more cynical of the three, wishing he were dead most of the time, the combination of this particular night sends him into heaven’s happy-as-a-clam state of being. Don (Jeff Mackinnon) wanted to be an astronaut, and he still wants to be one, but “he’d have to get out of bed in the morning.”

The initial scene provides the flavor of three personalities hinting at what is to come. Raney, Mackinnon and Donahue have found their characters living well inside them.

On the small stage, Rich Munoz designed a set that fits comfortably within the context of various scenes with Don’s apartment enriched by a tattered futon working as a couch when its needed and his bed when he wants. A bench in the center of the stage signifies the park Jack takes his son to play, while exercising his roving eye. A double bed nicely made up indicates a bedroom where coats are collected during a party. Crow matches the lighting and sound to the whimsical pattern of the three boy’s topsy-turvy shenanigans.

Karen (Lisa Mumpton) in the bedroom to get her coat encounters Phil who comes in to say hello. Barging in to get his coat, Man, a role shared by Cassio Harris and Ben Hustis, quickly leaves embarrassed by the intrusion he created. Wanting to take Karen away for a weekend, Phil alludes to a relationship. They slept together once, and Karen doesn’t consider that a relationship, which only eggs Phil on in his pursuit. Mumpton provides an honest portrayal of a confused young woman. The Man continues to interrupt to get his coat until Phil announces he and Karen are in love. The Man finds this quite interesting since Karen was sort of his date.

Shaded in sunglasses, Jack on the park bench confronts Maggie (Molly Slack) running a race with an obvious number around her neck stopping to catch her breath, with an obvious question about running. Succumbing to his cool playboy advances, she soon finds herself on the bench stoned under the influence of his beckoning pipe. Slack gives Maggie an aloof air of competent responsibility tinged with a keep-it-up-I-could-be-seduced allure.

It was opening night for this production company mixed with experienced and non-experienced actors. Act I tended to drag with halting pauses and stiff body movements perhaps with the uncertainty of opening night jitters. Act II however zoomed into the demanding rhythm of the escapades of the three struggling young men proving the direction was where it was suppose to be and the actors really did have a hold of their characters.

Missy Moore lights up the stage with her capitalization of Lisa, an artist and a waitress. Don trying to get a grip on himself and the conversation, stumbles over his words unable to say the right thing gives a lost little boy appearance while she prattles on. To put him at ease, she finally says, “Don don’t try so hard,” and then knocks him for a loop with, “Do you enjoy being a man?”

Of the three, Don appears to be the most mature, although he frequently shadow boxes with the tugging maturity element. Tumbling head over heels for the flamboyant Lisa, he runs into serious communication problems with himself, with her, Jack, and Phil.

Jack flaunts a nothing bothers him façade at the same time fostering a mean unruly streak with Don and Phil. Rough around the edges, Jack holds the tendency of digging into their feelings then brushing it aside with he’s just playing. He has all of the answers, and he wants everyone to believe it even if he doesn’t.

How accurate, Boy’s Life is for today’s world remains up for grabs. It would seem in today’s fast-paced, technological world the hormonal warfare would strike several years earlier than these twenty somethings. Funny, poignant, confusing often at the same time, this production of Boy’s Life maintains a sense of believability surrounded by good entertainment, a great deal of fun, and thought-provoking essences.

Phil doesn’t want to be alone. He’s waiting for something to happen so he knows he’s alive.

Don needs to confront the “Men are from Mars; Women are from Venus” diatribe with little help from his limited experience. In spite of himself he finds his way with Lisa even when it means standing up to his buddies. When Lisa badgers him for sleeping with another woman, his only explanation is “Because that’s what a man would do, to see if he could get away with it.”

Phil thinks Jack is childish, but Phil also wishes he were dead. “Everyone’s worried about the world blowing up. What if it doesn’t? What if it keeps on just the way it’s going?” Jack clings to his brutal interpretation of Mr. Cool, while Phil wallows in his own spinning kinetic energy.

Kristin Foss as Jack’s wife, Carla, holds the key to the depth of Jack when she observes with affectionate candor, “You’re not the worst man in the world, but you’d like to be.”

With direction creating naturalism for the actors to maintain consistency with their characters, with short scenes, and honest dialog, funny perceptive lines, and fast paced clear-cut action; this production of Boy’s Life needs to find its way onto the weekend calendar. Talent smiles through the front door.