Review: THE MOTHERFU**ER WITH THE HAT at Odyssey Theatre Ensemble

So in life, there are the people you love, the people you trust and the people you use. And you move through your existence, scraping together a living, trying to stay clean (or not), celebrating the peaks, and clawing your way out of the valleys, keeping on keeping on…until you spot...that...hat. The hat that, because it does not belong to you, must belong to someone else, and therefore should not be sitting, misplaced, on your kitchen table. Yes, existence can be just funny/complicated/seriously messed up in that way.

The lid itself is kind of a metaphor in Stephen Adly Guirgis’s THE MOTHERF**KER WITH THE HAT, for all that derails you. The owner of said hat is quite real, if nameless.  He’s the person who torpedoes the fragile stasis belonging to Jackie, his girlfriend Veronica and a handful of people in their respective orbits. The revival of Guirgis’s 2010 play, directed by Jolie Oliver (also a member of the cast) in a guest production at the Odyssey Theatre, is equal parts humor, romance and tequila-soaked despair. Led by a muscular trio of performances by Lodric D. Collins, Jordan Marinov and Alex Desert, this agile MOTHERFU**KER  is nothing short of compelling.

A love story? Well, yes it weirdly is. Curtain up on a messy, cramped apartment, where Veronica (played by Marinov) is tidying up in between snorting lines of blow as she talks to her mom on the phone. Their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Veronica’s man, Jackie (Collins), a former addict and ex-con who has been in love with the woman he calls  “Beautiful Boriqua Taino Mamacita Love Me Long Time Princess Goddess Supergirl Queen” since the two were in eighth grade. Jackie arrives with flowers, a stuffed bear, a lotto ticket and great news…he has a job! While Veronica showers in preparation for some celebratory sex, Jackie lays eyes on the hat. Which leads to accusations. Which Veronica denies.

A distraught Jackie ends up at the apartment of his sponsor, Ralph D (Desert), a self-congratulatory and quite sanctimonious brewer of nutritional drinks who prays with Jackie and reminds him that his girlfriend is an addict and “a wild…animal who was raised by wolves in Puerto Rican Transylvania.” Jackie accepts Ralph’s invitation to crash on Ralph’s couch where he is shown a healluva lot more amity by Ralph’s wife, Victoria, (played by Oliver) than Victoria shows to her own husband. When Jackie takes some rather rash steps, he and Jackie enlist the help of Jackie’s cousin, Julio, (Carlos Moreno Jr), a colorful maker of empanadas who loves Jackie (because, you know, family) even if he doesn’t particularly like him.

As matters play out, the five members of this quintet of bitter lost souls proceed to pair up, screw each other over, offer each other a hand, an ear, a shoulder, a bottle, an opportunity for retribution. These down-and-outs talk rough (Guirgis’s characters could out-curse an army of longshoremen), but – in Jackie and Veronica’s case – they also love hard. And there’s sufficient oddball-ery to keep the tone consistently comic. Whether it’s Ralph touting his endless supply of nutritional beverages or Cousin Julio, who performs massages and waxes (“Rolfing is my specialty. And Brazilian.”) and is also a cook and a notary public. Or Jolie’s acidly-bitter Victoria who, as much as she hates her husband’s guts, can still acknowledge that he makes a tasty batch of blueberry pancakes.

Guirgis mixes the sassy with the sad, and at the Odyssey, Oliver’s cast is largely able to keep pace. Collins turns Jackie into a big, mean-looking exposed nerve of hurt and need. Whenever he lays eyes on Marinov’s Veronica, the man melts. Equally as vulnerable, Marinov is tougher but also more broken. Her recitation of all the dreams she hasn’t yet been able to realize (“Where’s my ring? Where’s my two-family house in Yonkers? Where’s my Jackie that used ta live in my heart”) is heart-rendering.

It's not easy to figure out what the playwright wants us to make of Ralph, either the play’s moral engine, its real world barometer, its outright villain or some combination of all three. Playing the role originated by Chris Rock on Broadway, Alex Desert oozes confidence and mild-mannered charm. His influence over Collins’s Jackie is entirely understandable.  The deeper we get into the play, the more complicated this guy becomes. Respect or hate Ralph (the character invites both), Desert keeps him watchable.

On its opening night, the production wrestled with some pacing issues as a small army of stage hands spent an inordinate amount of time between scenes transforming Amanda Urrego’s set from Jackie and Veronica’s apartment to Ralph and Victoria’s to Cousin Julio’s, and back again. An intermission was thrown in that the play probably doesn’t need.

Notwithstanding, a hearty tip of the hat to this MOTHERFU**ER. Lives this cluttered should be just as entertaining.

THE MOTHERFU**ER WITH THE HAT plays through August 31 at 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd, Los Angeles.

Los Angeles Awards - Live Stats

Best Musical - Top 3

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7.4% of votes

2. HEATHERS (Backyard Playhouse: Treetop Production)

5.5% of votes

3. HAIR (Conundrum Theatre)

5.4% of votes

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