“I wish I could have at least come to get my kidneys checked!” she shoots back.
This is definitely a horror show. But John J. Caswell Jr.’s “wet brain(Playrights Horizons) is also a wildly funny, all-black comedy about addiction and obligation, love and abandonment, and toxic patterns of behavior so ingrained that they seem coded. Also, Joe may or may not make contact with aliens, so space travel occurs along the way.
Directed by Dustin Wills in co-production with MCC Theatre, the play is set in Scottsdale, where Ricky (Arturo Luis Soria), Angelina (Ceci Fernandez), and their younger brother Ron (Frankie J. Alvarez) grew up. takes place in a dilapidated house. by her father (Giulio Monge) after the death of her mother Mona. Her loss still haunts them 30 years later.
The aftermath of their father’s addiction and mother’s absence is pervasive in the lives of these brothers, each with their precisely honed abilities to combat a variety of compulsive behaviors and push the other’s buttons. Ron, who most resembles and protects his father the most, is also terribly homophobic. He relentlessly teases his gay brother Ricky.
Like last year’s Caswell political horror drama Man Cave, the design is the flashiest element of “Wet Brain”, with a window into Joe’s hallucinations and the whole family, including Mona (Florencia Lozano). provide a surreal means of gathering. (Set by Kate Knoll, lighting by Cha Shi, projection by Nicholas Husson, sound by Tay Brow and John Gaspar, costumes by Heidi Zerides Antugnano.)
“Why did you put a hole in your brain, Joe?” Mona asks her husband gently.
Both have passed the point of no return. The play’s most compelling desire is for children to find a way to heal them.
wet brain
Until June 25th at Playlights Horizons in Manhattan. playwrighthorizons.org. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes.
