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Some Girl(s)
By Neil LaBute
Produced by Profiles Theatre
4147 N. Broadway
Chicago, IL
Tickets: 773-549-1815 or www.profilestheatre.org – $25/$30
Thursdays thru Saturdays at 8:00 pm, Sundays at 7:00 pm
Running time is 1 hour 50 minutes (including a ten minute intermission prior to the presentation of an additional scene in its American debut)
Through December 16, 2007
He Meant No Harm
Neil LaBute’s hilarious look at one man’s attempt to set things right with some of his ex-girlfriends is a good-natured exploration of romance in contemporary society. The play follows a now 33-year-old, Guy (Darrell W. Cox), through a series of hotel room encounters across America in which he reunites with former girlfriends in an attempt to do something – he’s not exactly sure what – before he gets married. Each of the women is astonished at Guy’s sudden reappearance and each asks why on earth he has contacted them. Guy really doesn’t know, a vague sense that maybe they were angry with him in some way coupled with a desire to have peaceful closure, a need to have them say that it was no big deal, possibly even to salvage something of a friendship. The genius of this play – and of Cox’s performance – is that we are allowed to watch Guy discover that, average guy though he is, he is in fact a pretty dark-hearted character.
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What sets this show apart is that, unlike many playwrights of this generation, LaBute departs from the whining about dysfunctional families that has become cliché for the times and takes an honest look inward. What’s funny about it is that it is so true; you know Guy and you know the women. There’s the high-school first love Sam (Kristin Collins) who Guy left behind because he couldn’t face the thought of the mundane working class existence that would have been his had he stuck around. Sam is married with a family and doesn’t think about Guy any longer, but she hasn’t forgotten him or the other girl he snuck off to a prom across town with. There was chemistry there, Sam really cared about Guy and he cared about her even though she was never really good enough to be for keeps. For the laughs to work, you have to believe that this chemistry exists and Cox and Collins make it both real and really funny.
The other women are equally real and equally funny. Sarra Kaufman plays Bobbi, the pot-smoking partier from Guy’s undergrad days. She’s not hung up about having lost Guy or even about his indiscretions, possibly including her twin sister – an accusation that Guy denies, but has to admit that even now, he may have somehow ended up with a fiancé who reminds him of Bobbi. Theirs was the free-wheeling sexual fling and once again Cox and Kaufman nail the subtexts that allow the humor to flow. Jessie Fischer plays Tyler, the grad school squeeze who really thought marriage was in the cards and Susan Price is magnificent as the vindictive, jilted older woman – wife of a colleague from Guy’s early university faculty days. These actors are all top-notch and director Joe Jahraus gives them the space to make the scenes real. No one misses a beat and the result is that a truly insightful contemporary comedy comes to life right before the audience’s eyes. The humor of LaBute’s Some Girl(s) reminds me of a Neil Simon show for a younger generation only with a bit more substance that most of Simon’s work.
An additional scene has been added to the show and it is presented in its American premier following a ten-minute intermission. LaBute said that he did not write this additional scene because he felt the show unfinished, but because he heard another voice – another woman – that needed to speak. In this final scene we meet 26-year-old Reggie (Julie Zarlenga), younger sister of Guy’s best high school buddy. She is still single and still hung up about her encounter with Guy. It was at a slumber party for her friends on her 12th birthday. Guy was 18 and visiting the brother. The truth about Guy is finally clear to everyone, including Guy. He is a user who has left a trail of hurt in his wake even though he honestly never meant anyone any harm, not the women along the way or himself. Guy believes himself to be an average guy. He even proclaims that he is into monogamy, well serial monogamy, with only the perfectly ordinary now-and-again side dish. The irony is that Guy is right; he is just an average guy you’ll probably sort of like. There is a lot of very funny truth here and Some Girl(s) is a great show.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Randy Hardwick
randyontheglobe@yahoo.com for comments
Date Reviewed: September 23, 2007
Jeff Recommended
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