BWW Reviews: Hole in the Wall's WHACKED Explores in a Group What is Best Done Solo

WHACKED

Theatre: Hole in the Wall Theater
Location: 116 Main Street, New Britain
Production: Written and Directed by Scott Stephen Kegler; Set and Sound Design by Bill Arnold; Lighting Design by Jim Nason; Costume Design by Boswell Smith and Cast. Through December 14; Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Sunday, Matinee on December 8 at 2 p.m. Tickets $15-$20; Pay What You Can Performance on Friday, November 29, visit www.hitw.org.

Scott Stephen Kegler's world premiere comedy Whacked, now running at the Hole in the Wall Theatre in New Britain, could have been a successful solo show. The subject matter, well...erm...is something that an individual normally does in private. By oneself. When no one is around. For fear of being caught, um...red-handed.

Writer-Director Kegler has decided to drag, uh...onanism out into the light of day for a public flogging. If you catch my drift. How do I put this? You see, the subject of Whacked is something a lot of people do, apparently. I wouldn't know, because, you know, I've never done it and I'm sure you haven't either, but I'm pretty certain we both know someone who has done it even though no one wants to talk about it, let alone think about it. And now I have to write about it and make you think about it and,ohhhhhh, writing this review is going to be very difficult in ways I never fantasized abou...Darn it! Back to work!

Okay. So here goes. The most important thing for you to know is that in Whacked is that no one actually does, well...you know - IT onstage. Whew! They just talk about IT quite a bit, even if IT is, uh, awkward, I mean, to talk about IT. We can all at least imagine how embarrassed one would be to be caught, ummm...threading the needle by oneself. Apparently Mr. Kegler has written from experience and has decided to share his insights.

Well, Jack (played by handsome, sexy, hirsute Devin Horner, ohhhh...think about Dick Cheney, think about Dick Cheney) is home alone when his equally gorgeous, panther-like...shudder...wife Marta (Jenn Rykowski) comes home unexpectedly from grocery shopping. He is in the act of, erm...waxing rhapsodic when she walks in discovering him in flagrante solo. Although he is by himself, he is using, uh...resource material that is disturbing to his wife and, apparently, society at large. Marta's mortification enduces flaccidity in poor Jack, mainly as his AND her family are arriving the next day for Spanksg...THANKSgiving. That was a close one! Let's just say, to make my job a lot easier, that hilarity ensues...or does it???

Now that I'm out of the swampy bog of self-gratification and back here on the moral high ground, this should be a lot easier for me to finish myself off. NO! I mean finish the review! Lordy. Kegler, as a writer, has a lot on his hands with Whacked. Darn it! I tried. To keep it from getting dry and repetitive, he lubricates the, uh...wheels of comedy (phew!) with other subjects like religious hypocrisy, film history and pooping.

I am a big fan of gross-out comedy and Whacked shoots for its fair share of laughs, but sometimes if you beat something hard enough, it goes limp and isn't going to give up the goods. The play has a few sections where it rises to the occasion and others where it goes soft, while never becoming, you know, impotent. Again, my overwhelming feeling...feeling...ohhhhh...THOUGHT is that a new work benefits from the tug of war between a director and a playwright. By being director and playwright, Kegler is essentially playing with himself.

The cast is ideal and up...for anything! They are clearly having fun playing in a group (get your minds out of the gutter). Devin Horny (editorial note: HornER) is a fine comic, gorgeous, sexy performer and strikes the right balance of embarrassed and emboldened. As Marta, Jenn Rykowski doesn't have quite as many notes to play as she comes off as fairly unpleasant for much of the action, yet she is still gorgeous and sexy. Ryan Wantroba, as a young, nubile priest called in to exorcise the demon in Devin's drawers, is fine, if awkward, in the role of Father Laurence.

As Jack's parents, Warren Dutkiewicz and Pan Riley provide funny, yet surprisingly poignant performances. If you're going to be caught, you know, greasing the bacon, you'd want these two to be the ones walking through the door. Did I just write that? That is not an invitation, Mr. Dutkiewicz and Ms. Riley. I meant it in the metaphoric sense. Kathleen-Marie Clark's daffy Alice, Marta's mother, starts out as an Edith Bunker-like delight, but then takes a too-shrill turn into self-righteous prig. Did I just reference Edith Bunker in a review about a play about slapping the bologna? Jean Stapleton, forgive me!

The finest, funniest performance in the play belongs to Bill Arnold, who also designed and built the wonderful set, no doubt pounding away in a sweat-soaked t-shirt that clung to his chiseled torso...hoooo-boy! Having taken Mr. Arnold to task for acting as writer and director of his own comedy, Attack of the Space Nymphos from Uranus, it is undeniably pleasurable to see him, uh...coming together with his fellow castmates, to, er...provide just the comedic money shot that this play needs. He should get caught in the act onstage more often.

There is one other character who, uhhhh, pops up, but I'll keep him/her a secret. Let's just say, (s)he's been making a few cameos at Hole in the Wall as of late and has earned a star dressing room.

I'm off to...take a cold shower.

Photo of the cast of Whacked by Lauren DuBois.