Laughing Wild
Go see it! I had a “date” last night with my straight alter ego, P Galore. She took me to see Laughing Wild, put on by the Huntington Theater Company. The show is really just two monologues and a short playlet. The first two monologues are given by a woman who is slightly nuts, slightly hilarious, and somehow sympathetic. She tells us about an encounter in the tuna fish aisle at the supermarket, where a man is standing in her way, and she doesn’t say anything, but just waits behind him becoming more and more agitated until she eventually knocks him on the head in frustration. She talks about trying to get a cab and finding herself in an argument with a driver who is off duty. As she goes on, you realize that you partially agree with her, and her character is someone you can relate to. At the same time she is so helpless, lonely, and erratic that it’s a little scary. At points in her monologue I found myself laughing and depressed at the same time.
The second monologue is given by a man (the author of the play), who has a speech prepared about his new positive attitude, acquired through some sort of thinking positive seminar. Yet, try as he might, he keeps slipping away from his notes and into rants about the things he hates and fears. A highlight is when he talks about how people can possibly think that God sent AIDS to punish homos. He imagines a conversation between God and Gabriel, where God suddenly decides, in the 1970’s, to invent AIDS. It will be a blood-borne disease which will punish drug addicts, homosexuals, Haitians, and hemopheliacs. Clearly. This character is also somewhat pathetic, somewhat sympathetic, and very hilarious.
The second act, the playlet, brings the two characters together in a series of dreams that they seem to share. I won’t say more than that, but the show definitely gave me a little bit of entertainment and a lot to think about. If you get a chance, definitely see it!
Debra Monk and Christopher Durang Start ‘Laughing Wild’ in Boston [Playbill Online]
