Access Atlanta > Arts > Our Reviews > Archives > 2005 > September > 23 > Entry
‘Bug’ at Actor’s Express
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. “Bug.” At Actor’s Express. Through Oct. 29.
If you suffer from such easily transferable conditions as yawning, hunger or scratching, beware the new play at Actor’s Express. Or at least pack some “Bug” spray and a little lotion to soothe your itchy skin.
Watching Tracy Letts’ play “Bug” is like being in a confessional with a really friendly mosquito. You hardly notice it at first. Then you panic.
You feel the claustrophobia. The slow panic and real-time pacing. The paranoia and lunatic logic that engulf war veteran Peter and down-and-out waitress Agnes.
Even if you liked Letts’ deliciously lurid “Killer Joe,” which opened the Express’ 2004-2005 season, that’s not sufficient prep for the sick business that plays out in the lost couple’s pathetic Oklahoma City motel room.
Letts, a member of Chicago’s famed Steppenwolf Theatre, is the bad-boy playwright of the moment in the way that Quentin Tarantino was the enfant terrible of the movie world back in the day. The Oklahoma-born Letts is fascinated by the grotesque, by redneck humor, by terrorism, by mental illness, by illicit drug use, by nudity —- all of which he uses to depict his specimens of what the Powers That Be might dismiss as society’s Lowest Common Denominators.
Probably the only reason Letts gets away with his twisted little vision is that it’s so monstrously funny. He gives his women characters names like R.C. and Lavoice and Sharla. He sprinkles his dialogue with one-liners that are so pithy and disgusting, so infectiously silly, that even the sickest moments are delightful because you know you shouldn’t be laughing. That you wouldn’t be if your mother were around.
He also has a gift for nailing his characters in just a few words. It’s ironic that the first thing we hear from Peter (Daniel May) is “I’m not an ax murderer.” And that he speaks it in the voice of a little boy who’s been banished to a corner.
Like Hitchcock, Letts plants warning signals —- and shockers that we don’t see coming. (Don’t open the door. Oh, wait, what’s on the pizza?)
Agnes (Sherman Fracher) is the verbal engine that drives this compulsively talky talker over the top. The unspeakable sadness of Agnes’ back story makes her unhealthy behavior and intense loneliness seem absolutely truthful. What Fracher does so magnificently is amplify her character’s gullibility and naivete, her tics and spastic behavior, her constant jonesing for alcohol, cigarettes and cocaine, to the stuff of high comedy.
For those who haven’t heard, we should probably say right now that Agnes and Peter become convinced that their accidental affair, and the subsequent arrival of what they believe are millions of microscopic visitors, are part of a government plot.
You should also know that Agnes’ riffraff ex-husband, Goss (Jeff Feldman), preys on them like a badly mustachioed mantis. And that a strange intruder named Dr. Sweet (David Skoke) drops in at one point to add an aura of “X-Files” mystery to the whole mess.
And so as not to reveal too many secrets, we’ll just leave it at that.
Fracher gives one of the best performances I’ve seen all year. As R.C., newcomer Kara Cantrell cuts a buxom and appropriately dyke-ish figure. Feldman looks like he’s just crawled out of a bad biker bar (and uses his character’s meanness to great comic effect). May, never an actor to hold back, for once does just that.
Jasson Minadakis (“Killer Joe,” “The Goat”) directs. Kat Conley contributes the seedy motel set, and when the characters wear clothes, they pull on the nondescript thrift-store garb of designer Jim Alford.
I’m a nut for Tracy Letts’ plays. But that doesn’t mean that I think he’s a heavyweight writer. If you want to believe “Bug” is a brilliant piece about the flaws of the military, the seeds of terrorism or the Sodom slouch of America, go right ahead.
I’m just thrilled that somebody has the nerve to put such disturbing material in the unforgiving light of the theater.
Splat. What the *#&$? Geesh, does anyone know where I put the insect spray?
THE VERDICT: Show with the biggest buzz.
THE 411: 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays. Call for Sunday times. Through Oct. 29. $10.75-$26.75. Actor’s Express, King Plow Arts Center, 887 W. Marietta St., Atlanta. 404-607-7469. www.actors-express.com.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Theater
Comments
Commenting is now closed for this entry.
By PCW
September 26, 2005 9:36 AM | Link to this
I saw Bug Saturday night. The reviewer hit the nail on the head. By the second act, as Agnes and Peter’s behavior became more bizarre, I was squirming in my seat and wanting to scratch at my imaginary (I hope!) bug bites. Some great one liners that make you laugh out loud, to the character’s back story development that you make you wince with pain, this is a good show. Different but good.
By Fran McGivern
September 30, 2005 1:46 PM | Link to this
Beyond the wonderful theatrics, I thought the play also convincingly portrayed the development of “une folie a deux” (a shared madness).