The digital magazine of New York indie theater
Loading

The Lizards

nytheatre.com review by David DelGrosso
August 15, 2005

eXposed Brick Productions is presenting the world premiere of the late downtown playwright Alan Bowne’s very dark comedy The Lizards, directed by Damon W. Arrington. Bowne, who died in 1989, is probably best known for his play Beirut, and eXposed Brick has become a frequent home to his work.The Lizards takes place in the hot summer of 1983 in the East Village apartment of Maurice, an aging queen who has become the “mark” and mother figure to a few young hustlers in the neighborhood. He is particularly close to Kip, whom he shelters, and Kip has repaid Maurice’s trust by using his apartment as a hiding place for 25 grams of stolen heroin. On the day the drugs are to be sold they come up missing and Kip puts the blame on Maurice. Complicating the search is Maurice’s fixation with keeping and compiling piles and piles of old newspapers and magazines, giving the panicked small-time drug thieves a lot to tear through.Most of the play's action follows the pattern of any crime story with a missing bag of drugs or money—there are accusations, power games, betrayals, and plenty of beatings and torture. As a play, The Lizards does not seem to have much of a point that it is getting at, but the journey itself is a sweaty, muscular 90 minutes of criminals behaving badly. For all but the squeamish, it is a compelling, guilty pleasure such as you might find in the hopelessness of ‘70s crime films, or the tireless aggression and invective of Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs.I am not sure how to explain why we can enjoy such a dark spectacle—perhaps it is a kind of catharsis, or—whatever the opposite of vicariousness is—call it “God, I’m glad I’m not in the middle of that!” But, however I justify it, I know I was entertained. Perhaps if Bowne could have seen this bold first production, it would have given him the chance to know where else to take his characters, as the play feels unfinished, but unfortunately that is not possible. Still, eXposed Brick Productions (the only company I know that has the word “seedy” in its mission statement) has given The Lizards an exuberantly over the top premiere which allows the play's larger-than-life characters to chew, tear, and overturn the scenery with aplomb.As Maurice, Greg Mehrten provides a center to the play, giving this character dignity and strength as he tries to stand up to this attack on his small home. As 3-Yard, Kip’s boss on the street and the self-proclaimed alpha of the situation, Sean Twomey is by turns explosive, dangerous, and pathetic, and always interesting to watch. I would also like to give special mention to fight director Michael G. Chin, his two credited assistants Marius Hanford and Maggie Macdonald, as well as the whole cast for creating some of the most brutal and believable stage violence I have seen in a long time. As you may have guessed, the violence in the play is pervasive and important to the story, and everyone involved in this production has committed to it and it shows. Commitment is the final word that I will give to director Arrington—this production succeeds because it does not feel afraid of the darkness or boldness of the material; he went for it and succeeded.