Review: OUT WITH A BANG Proves Growing Older is not for Sissies

Out With a Bang Playwright Tony Pasqualini started writing it when he turned the dreaded 70 while feeling lucky to keep working in a profession he loves, married for forty years to the same loving woman, with two adult kids that live nearby. Questioning whether his good fortune came to him through persistence and hard work - or simply the product of dumb luck - he decided “to write a play about a man and a woman and another man… who maybe weren’t so lucky.”

Pasqualini stars as Eddie Cappiello who is trapped and living out his life in the Out With A Bang Senior Living Community where his greatest concern is what’s being served for dinner. And as a single, able-bodied man in a world of older women looking for a pickleball partner, while their non-mobile husbands stay indoors watching television, he is never at a loss to add the next check mark to his conquest list. But underneath all that bravado, Eddie is really a lonely man looking for human connection – without promises or complications.  

Tony Pasqualini, Sarah Brooke. Production photos by Ian Cardamon

The play opens when Eddie’s ex-wife Betty (Sarah Brooke, Pasqualini’s real-life wife), recently widowed from her second husband, arrives at his door and asks him to help her get revenge on a neighbor who has made her life intolerable. Eddie, longing to reawaken the love that the two of them once had, makes the fateful decision to assist. And although the heartbroken Betty (over her recently lost dog, not Eddie) gives into his advances to get him to agree, she wants nothing else to do with him afterwards other than to carry out her desire for revenge.

Robert Lesser

After adding another notch to his list (prominently posted on his wall), Eddie enlists his good friend and next-door neighbor, Daniel (Robert Lesser), a former Israeli accountant and professional mourner, to assist. And, as it turns out, being a professional mourner has created a plethora of sexual partners for the more mild-mannered Daniel, with his conquest list much longer than Eddie’s! It’s a sore spot of contention for Eddie, who creates many excuses to offset his failure to be as successful with women as his friend.

Robert Lesser, Tony Pasqualini, Sarah Brooke

After much persuasion, Daniel agrees to assist Eddie in Betty’s revenge quest. However, what he really wants to accomplish is to get the two of them to realize how much they still love and need each other. But until Eddie can learn how to be less flamboyant and egotistical and share his real feelings and emotions with Betty, Daniel knows the two will never reunite.

After Betty shares her older six-shooter pistol and bullets with Eddie, the three friends decide to carry out her need for revenge against her neighbor. What follows is a hysterical mission carried out by the two men to hunt down the proposed victim that involves a comical car ride, hiding in the bushes, needing to pee in a bottle, and trying to shoot a man neither of them knows. So, when there finally is the “bang” of the gun, who gets shot?

Robert Lesser, Tony Pasqualini

The play then morphs into less of a farce and into a romantic comedy with two people meant to be together learning how to share their true feelings with each other – thanks to the wisdom of a good friend wanting the best for both of them. And it’s easy to see why Daniel has more luck with the ladies, given his ability to be quiet and listen to others rather than try to dominate every conversation, and then sharing his honest feelings without thinking about the consequences of letting another person see his soul. Thankfully, his wisdom to tell each other the truth is not dismissed by his two friends, giving the play a very heartwarming ending.

Sarah Brooke, Robert Lesser

Director Andy Weyman, well known for his work in television comedy, allows Pasqualini, who has starred on over 50 television shows, to express most of his lines in an over-the-top fashion more appropriate for working on camera than the stage. But that style works for this play on the smaller stage at Pacific Resident Theatre in Venice, given how the character of Eddie lives his life, always talking loudly about himself to hide how little he wants to listen to the real feelings in his own heart, let alone anyone else’s.

But I guarantee as the second act unfolds, you will be drawn into who Eddie really is underneath the bravado, and start rooting for him to tell Betty how he really feels about her without worrying about any repercussions of telling her the truth - and that she will do the same and open her heart to him. Real-life partners Pasqualini and Brooke allow us to see how their mutual respect for each other for the past 40 years infuses their ability to portray these two closed-off characters realistically, both overcoming their fear and confusion in a manner that feels beautifully real.

Set design by The Bangers effectively shares Eddie’s plain retirement community condo living room where almost all of the action takes place. The only exception is the car ride, accomplished by brings in two chairs and a steering wheel to the front of the set and Michael Redfield’s lighting design focusing on the two men as they stumble and fumble to accomplish Betty’s revenge. Sound design by Keith Stevenson includes many classic rock and pop songs as well as environmental sounds, especially during the car ride and stakeout which are appropriately introduced at the start of Act 2 with the Pink Panther theme. 

Out With a Bang returns to Pacific Resident Theatre in Venice from August 15 through September 16 on Thursdays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 3pm. Run time is approximately 1 hour and 50 minutes (including a 15-minute intermission). Reserved seats tickets are $35, or $25 for seniors 55+ and Veterans, with $12 students with proper ID. Reservations can be made by calling (310) 822-8392 or online at https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?show=302016

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