The world according to John Kuntz is a bizarre and often
perilous place, whether he’s writing about beginnings (THE ANNOTATED HISTORY OF
THE AMERICAN MUSKRAT) or endings (NECESSARY MONSTERS) or even limbo (THE HOTEL
NEPENTHE).
For NECESSARY MONSTERS (playing at SpeakEasy Stage through
Jan.3rd), Kuntz has created a dramatic wasteland a la Hieronymus Bosch.
Eight actors are confined in an enormous cage—which may be a plane, judging
from the stewardess’ safety instructions at the very start of the play—or it may
be a sound stage, judging from the hand held cameras, the delightful rewinds
and the slew of blindingly bright television screens (which sometimes record
real time).
Where MUSCRAT and NEPENTHE tapped into a universal
consciousness, NECESSARY MONSTERS does not, although it references the seamy
side of pop culture with a vengeance. Instead of SNAKES ON A PLANE, we witness
the serial killer from FRIDAY THE 13th (who had the bad luck of stopping
en route for A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE) ruthlessly stalking his unsuspecting victims
in their upright seats.
Characters aren’t dispatched just once, mind you. The mayhem
is repeated and repeated. One woman, Kuntz wryly explains, is spared because
she “looked already dead” and to kill her “would be redundant.” If you’re
expecting the clever humor of his other plays, you won’t be happy. Not until
Thomas Derrah wakes up an hour or so in (Didn’t he hear the explosions?) are we
treated to a nifty, naughty monologue about faulty child rearing practices.
Then as quickly as he arrives, he slinks back down to the floor and snoozes for
the rest of the play, as did the man seated next to me.
Kuntz, himself, is one of the characters or rather two of the
characters because he seems to be a psychiatrist at one point, and a swimmer in
another scene in which he saves Michael
Underhill (and monkey)
from drowning. McCaela Donovan and Underhill meet on a blind date (in the
plane?). As a child, Underhill may have been abused by Georgia Lyman’s
babysitter. Stacey Fischer’s character is depressed throughout. Evelyn Howe
keeps getting slashed by Greg Maraio’s killer…who manages a playful strip tease
but later becomes a terrorist and blows up the plane, maybe. I couldn’t swear
to any of this.
Kuntz and director David R. Gammons struck gold with HOTEL
NEPENTHE but the imagery in MONSTERS is so overwhelming that I couldn’t piece
it together, I’m sorry to say. I didn’t even realize that actors were doubling
roles or that locales had changed, let alone follow a time line but I did enjoy
the cat videos.
