Pugilist Specialist: Tense and Terse Drama

Quick -- try and say the name of Riot Group's new Off-Broadway production, Pugilist Specialist, ten times fast. I'll wait.

Tough, eh?

Pugilist Specialist may not be a title that rolls trippingly from the tongue, but don't let the unusual name keep you from seeing this tense and terse military drama.

(l-r) Paul Schnaber, Drew Friedman, Adriano Shaplin, Stephanie Viola
Photo by Robbie Jack

Riot Group is a small ensemble of actors who have been working together since 1997, touring festivals and theatres throughout the US and Europe. Their resident playwright, Adriano Shaplin. writes roles specifically for company members and as a group they direct and design each production.

This four-character play concerns a group of highly specialized US marines preparing for a mission to assassinate an unspecified Middle East leader. Lt. Stein (Stephanie Viola), despite being an explosives specialist, feels that as a woman the military finds her more valuable as a spokes model. ("I polish my teeth more often than my boots.") She's recently been involved with a scandal which put her photo on the front page of the New York Times, the specifics of which are intentionally held back from the audience. Lt. Freud (Shaplin), a sniper ("I prefer hopeless romantic."), is the familiar "loose cannon wise guy" type. Lt. Studdard (Drew Friedman), is a by-the-book communications expert resolved to unquestionably follow orders and Col. Johns (Paul Schnaber) is the only one knowing the exact details of what is to be accomplished and why these three were selected to participate.

But there's an important fifth character involved... a microphone. The team is fully aware that everything they say is being recorded. The colonel explains that this documentation will be used as a training tool, but instructs his communications expert, "In the event that this document is misinterpreted, or becomes the subject of misinterpretation, you will be expected to toilet this particular document. Alternately, if our actions are celebrated, you will prepare excerpts for distribution." The production is stylized so that the audience is put in the position of someone listening to these tapes. The actors spend nearly all of the play sitting on benches, facing the audience while saying their lines. We don't get to see the physical communication between any of the characters. Just the verbal. In the background, Shaplin has a musical scoring repeating unemotional rhythms, often reminiscent of a tape player being rewound.

Also emotionless is the language used by the military, as exemplified in the text. People are not killed. Targets are eliminated. The enemy is "shaped". It may seem heartless to a civilian ear, but these characters understand that armed forces cannot be effective when each individual is allowed to act upon their own individual morals.

Which brings us to the play's conclusion. Some will find it shocking. Some will be saddened, but conclude the actions are for the greater good. The Riot Group doesn't tell us what to think. They simply throw the situation out there for us to judge after the fact. And they throw it out via a fine ensemble of actors and a gripping, well-written story.

 

For more information visit theriotgroup.com

For Michael Dale's "mad adventures of a straight boy living in a gay world" visit dry2olives.com

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