Review: Taken In By 'Take Me Out'

Sure, one could use a terribly tasteless metaphor having to do with bats and balls. But if that's what you have in mind, you'd best leave before the lights in the ballpark dim.  Fortunately enough, the Tony Award-winning play Take Me Out, now playing to eager audiences at New Conservatory Theatre Center hardly provides the opportunity for sexual distraction.  In or out of uniform, this is NCTC as its finest.

We're in a locker-room; a private place where the sweat and the grime mix with the tears of defeat or the shouts of triumph.  Where the trouble on or off the field is kept locked up with the deodorant and the tobacco.  We're flies on the wall of a true red, white and blue pastime.  So imagine the mess when one of America's best ball players goes into the locker room and out of the closet with one overly confident stride!

"It all started with Darren," says Kippy (Matt Socha), our narrator and best friend of Darren Lemming (Brian J. Patterson).  The very same Darren Lemming of the New York Empires who decides to take fateful advice and announce on public television that he's something special.  Not only is he "a black man who had never suffered," but he's narcissistic, young, rich, famous, handsome… and gay.  Start pitching the screwballs.

The impressive Jeffrey Cohlman plays pitcher, Shane Mungitt, a splinter from Arkansas (or Tennessee?) who hardly speaks but says a mouthful! After a slip-of-the-tongue about the diversity of his teammates, bad turns to worse as someone is down at the plate and not getting up.  Cohlman's magnificent construction of character is enrapturing, especially as Mungitt cries in desperation after a biting jail-scene with Kippy and Darren.

But the MVP award goes to Patrick Michael Dukeman as Darren's flamboyant and hilarious financial agent, Mason Marzac.  Nerdy Mason embarrasses himself with every other word.  Dukeman floats in an aura of laughter, clearly enjoying every minute on-stage.  Dancing in his superbly-written monologues, Dukeman reveals entirely new allures to the sport.  He becomes turned-on by ball-sized biceps, numbers and – through Greenberg's magnetic interpretation – finds hope in the baseball's rules, symmetry and equality of opportunity.  This Chaka Khan of the Stadium becomes exalted when the Empires win; upon introduction to Darren and the magic of the game, Mason finds his life has purpose!

The 11-man cast, expertly directed by Ed Decker, never "take their eye off the ball" so to speak.  They are tight and focused, rolling in Greenberg's clever language and delivering a grand slam performance.  Each actor flexes true theatrical athleticism.

The last time I'd seen a live performance of Take Me Out, I was in the front mezzanine and completely distracted by the nudity.  This time, in spite of being six rows from the nakedness, I was more focused on the play.  Great bodies up against a great script? The script wins.  Perhaps I've matured as an audience member.  Or perhaps NCTC took me all the way to home-plate this time around!

Take Me Out: by Richard Greenberg, directed by Ed Decker, at the New Conservatory Theatre Center through July 11, 2007. 2hrs with one 15min intermission. Tickets ($22-$34) are available at 415-861-8972 or www.nctcsf.org. NCTC is located at 25 Van Ness Avenue at Market in San Francisco.

Photos by Lois Tema
The cast of Take Me Out: Tom Orr, Tim Redmond, Donovan Keith, Brian J. Patterson, Carlos Barrera, Arthur Keng, Matt Socha; Brian J. Patterson as Darren Lemming; Patrick Michael Dukeman as Mason Marzac

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