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Faster
By Adam Rapp
Produced by The Side Project
1439 W. Jarvis
Chicago, IL
Tickets: 773-973-2150 or www.thesideproject.net $20
Thur-Sat at at 8:00 p.m., Sun. at 7:00 p.m.
Running time is 1 hour 45 minutes with one intermission
Through April 6th
Faster, Faster…Darker, Darker
One of the characters in Adam Rapp’s Faster, now in its regional premiere at The Side Project, laments his descent into hell by saying that he feels like if he could just run fast enough he could get away from the forces that are tormenting him. The terror stricken young man, Rapp’s homeboy Kitchin (Bryson Engelen), is the vehicle for the playwright’s own angst. He seems to be saying that if he could just make his work darker, the audience would feel the extraordinary isolation of his pain more acutely. With Faster he has succeeded on both counts. The show could not be darker and the pain could not be more acute.
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Set in a flop house apartment in Joliet, three young men await the arrival of The Man (Paul Meyers) from Oswego in order to conclude a shady business transaction. Two of them, Kitchen and his pal Skram (Ryan Heindl), have kidnapped a young girl (Jarrah Korba on opening night) and have her locked in a closet. The third young man is Skram’s older brother Stargyl (Bries Vannon), a cowering retard who regularly soils himself and who – as we learn later – has been so traumatized by his life that he is unable to speak. The interaction between Skram and Kitchin is a string of street dialect that should offend virtually everyone. In other words, it is naturalistic and authentic. Rapp is the master at putting pen to the awful way an inarticulate generation speaks and Director Joanie Schultz has found three young actors who can milk the lines for all they are worth. They are loathsome, but life hasn’t exactly dealt them a sweet hand of cards. Whatever. Lots of things are not as they appear to be anyway and the show has unexpected creepy twists that keep the audience guessing and glued to the action trying to figure it out. In the end, they leave as confused and stunned as the characters in the play. Faster is less a story than a feeling…a disturbing and creepy feeling that the extraordinarily talented cast manages to share with all who enter their intimate theatre space.
Faster is a show that not everyone will like. In my estimation it is a powerful artistic achievement, albeit an excruciatingly ugly one. The list of things to like is long. The acting is first rate and tight. Schultz has worked the young cast to near perfection and Paul Meyers as The Man from Oswego is the most evil thing since Hannibal Lecter. The technical support is effective, especially Matthew Gawryk’s (lighting) and Stephen Ptacek’s (sound) special effects collaboration. Grant Sabin’s basement flat set had me checking around for roaches and there is even a reasonable fight sequence. On the other side of the coin, the language is brutal, resolution is impossible and there is a gratuitous instance of penis wagging – something of a regular feature at Side Project these days – that is bound to bother some. In my personal view, what separates art from entertainment is the emotional response to a work on the part of the audience member. Faster creeped me out and it is still making me think a day later. For those who enjoy this edgy style of theatre Faster is a must see. Everyone else is warned off.
RECOMMENDED
Randy Hardwick
Date Reviewed: March 8, 2008
randyontheglobe@yahoo.com for comments
Jeff Recommended
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