REVIEW: THE KIDNEY

When I first heard about the premise for The Kidney, I was very intrigued. "How," I thought to myself, "can you make a farce out of something so deadly serious as a kidney transplant?" The answer, I discovered when I finally saw the show, is "Not very well."

Now, don't get me wrong, I love farce. I love dark comedy. I love satire. And The Kidney aspires to be all of these things... but instead becomes a nasty, bitter "character" study of cruel stereotypes, with the satire and dark comedy buried deep underneath. It makes for a terribly uncomfortable and unpleasantly disturbing evening of theatre.

The plot revolves around Mark, a young man with hypertension so severe it has caused him renal failure, thus necessitating a kidney transplant. His circle of family and so-called loved ones gather to offer up their support and their kidneys, but what should be acts of compassion and friendship disintegrate into selfish battles to prove selflessness. Therein lies the satire, of course, except satire should probably be funny, or at least thought-provoking. It could, theoretically, even be funny with stereotypes instead of characters, but The Kidney gnaws rather than bites, thus failing as a satire of phony sympathy and charity. The farce and dark comedy angles appear in the manipulations of Mark's circle to have Mark do their bidding. But much in the way that being repeatedly smashed upside the head with a blunt hammer isn't funny, the whining and wailing and pleading and prodding of these unpleasant people also fails to amuse.

And while the amateurish acting by the ensemble cast and the weary direction by Drew DeCorleto don't help, the true blame must rest on playwright Hunt Holman's shoulders. His weak jokes are not the most painful angle of the script, but rather his lack of characters. He doesn't give us a single original, three-dimensional human being, but drags out the usual suspects: the nondescript worrywart who doesn't take care of himself, the ultra-competitive loud hippie-vegan, the selfish and shallow brother, the bully best friend, and the shrill girlfriend. No depth can be found in any of them, much less surprises. They shout, they accuse, they whine, they basically make themselves utterly unlikable, which could still work if their dialogue were sharper and funnier. But if the characters are unoriginal and unsympathetic (thus diluting the drama) and the so-called humor is cliched at best and repulsive at worse (thus erasing the comedy), what is left?

Perhaps if the premise of The Kidney were a little less fascinating, a little less original and groundbreaking, I might not resent its shortcomings so very much. Holman had the opportunity to explore new ground with this play, to find humor where it is most hidden, and elicit some true gasps of shock, along with some nervous giggles. Tragically, rather than blazing a trail, this play steps boldly off the beaten path right into quicksand.