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| Teri Lazzara and Brandon Ryan in Trevor (Shane Regan) |
MAP Theatre
(at 18th & Union)
Through March 30, 2019
MAP Theatre loves themselves play-oddities! You'll never see a "kitchen-sink" drama from them unless the kitchen sink is really a spaceship and the family is aliens that look like giraffes.
Their current play, Trevor, by Nick Jones, features Brandon Ryan in the kind of role that Ryan and few others can master with abandon - that of an adult chimpanzee! While adults around him pretend that he can understand Human and that he behaves in ways they understand, Trevor obsesses about his one chance at tv-stardom when he performed in a commercial with Morgan Fairchild of long-ago tv-hit Falcon Crest.
In the meantime, his human "mom," played by Teri J. Lazzara, is so attached to him that she resists all efforts at taking him away from her and placing him in a more appropriate, and safer, environment.
Directed by Julie Beckman, the whole cast does a great job, but Ryan and Lazzara shine particularly brightly in their respective roles. Ryan knows exactly what he's doing, even when he throws things with force and bangs around the tiny, well-built set. Lazzara is heart-breaking in her devotion to this child-beast and her denial is all too identifiable with.
Speaking of well-built set, it's pretty amazing the kind of detail that designer Robin Macartney can squeeze into the small area that is the 18th & Union stage. Mario Gomez's sound design has tricks up its sleeve, so you have to listen closely for the hidden jokes. Corrine Magin's costumes are sometimes a surprise (I love the blingy top she's chosen for Lazzara).
While it's based on a true story of kind of horrific results, the obsession Jones infuses into Trevor's existence doesn't work all that well, though one can imagine that Jones is also trying to comment on today's media-infused life. But the sheer bravado of Ryan's performance is reason enough to see the show.
For more information, go to
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4053490 or call 800-838-30006.
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