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Ratface

nytheatre.com review by Fred Backus
August 15, 2005

Wall St. Productions’ presentation of Ratface by J. Snodgrass opens with three women posing like the Charlie’s Angels silhouettes over the sleeping form of a man in a hospital bed labeled “Charlie” as cool pop music pulses loudly and a young woman in pink faces upstage in the background. It is a striking and enticing tableau that makes you wonder what the images have to do with the story about to unfold.Not very much, and this signifies one of the weaknesses of this production—many of the directorial elements seem tacked onto the script without enough justification. Referencing the theatrical event through staging, casting without regard to gender, and adding minor roles are all ambitious choices, but they are not innovative enough to hold up on their own without any apparent textual or thematic reasons for being there. Director Adrienne Willis knows how to get the audience’s attention, but too often her bag of tricks screams for it, which can distract from the story being told.One gets the feeling that Willis is trying to wow the audience with a zany and high energy tour de force, but I’m not sure this approach is right for the material. Ratface is a black comedy about a failed suicide attempt by a teenager whose friends and family want him to finish the job. The play starts out surreal and becomes more and more absurd as the play progresses, but there is a nonchalance about the cruelty dished out that seems to beg for a deadpan approach. By making the piece so cartoonish and over the top, this production manages to both plough over the play’s humor and take the teeth out of its bite.Some of the performances are indicative. Grabbing the audience with her broad and off-the-wall approach, Foss Curtis as The Doctor starts the performance at 9, reaches 10 very quickly, and then has nowhere to go for the rest of the play. Emily Schweitz is convincing and appropriately unappealing as Charlie’s mother, but her Joan Crawford interpretation, whether originating with her or Willis, is a predictable choice that leaves little surprises. Cass Bugge as Charlie’s best friend Jesse, manages to ground her performance with some nuances, but she, like Curtis, is hampered by the confusing and inexplicable choice of being cast in a role written for a man. Bill Fischer as Charlie makes a likeable straight man, but he seems reluctant to assert his presence as the focal point of the play, and therefore isn’t able to provide this production with a much needed anchor.Ratface reaches an absurd crescendo by the end, but the moment loses much of its effectiveness because the drama and humor aren’t given enough of a chance to build. With its offbeat and funny script and a talented cast, this production might have hit a little closer to the mark if it wasn’t straining quite so hard. By losing the gimmicks and trusting more in the script, I think both the humor and the pathos of Ratface would have a better chance to emerge.