Hand to God

Another very high energy show. Very funny but very very dark.

Christian when in to pick up the tickets and he said there was someone in line trying ti get a refund. They said they just found at that their son was too young to see the show. As Christian said just because it has puppets doesn't mean the show is for kids.

And it wasn't. The puppet opened and closed the show. In the first ten minutes or so the puppet dropped the f word probably half a dozen times.

Who knew a sock puppet could be so evil.

This is from the New York Times:

Possibly, this needs some explaining. Mr. Askins’s dark comedy, which opened on Monday night at the Lucille Lortel Theater, features a brilliant performance by Steven Boyer in the central role of a troubled but good-hearted teenager, Jason, who’s forced to participate in a church puppet pageant. On his left arm resides a fellow he’s named Tyrone, made of gray knit material trimmed in bright red fur, with big, black eyes.

Tyrone looks about as cuddly and harmless as your average Muppet. But soon, to Jason’s horror, Tyrone begins to display the ornery demeanor of a foul-mouthed bully, combined with the violent instincts of a terrorist. And, by the end of Mr. Askins’s play about the divided soul in all of us, poor Jason will be locked in a duel to the death (or thereabouts) with his own left arm, or rather the evil spirit that has taken possession of it.

As the hapless, uncomfortable Jason, Mr. Boyer gives a touching, gently hued performance, his voice barely rising above a whisper as he tries to warn his mother that, as he puts it, this puppet business is “doing bad things to me.” At the same time, Mr. Boyer establishes Tyrone as a such a singular presence, with his snarky snarl of a voice, that you soon find yourself considering him, as Jason does, as a malign entity independent from the benevolent character to whom he is attached (and of whom he is, obviously, a psychic alter ego clad in friendly-looking felt). 

 I was amazed at Steven Boyer's performance. Because with his voice he has indeed created two totally and  completely different characters. The entire cast is amazing. The show, as I said is funny, but does pose some very important questions of just exactly where does evil and why people do the things they do.