Roger is divorced, demoted, and drifting—lost in an era that no longer makes sense. But when an online personality promises clarity, Roger dives in without looking back. Timely, provocative, and darkly comedic, Angry Alan explores one man’s journey down the digital rabbit hole—examining how far he's willing to go, and how much he's prepared to lose, for validation in a world where “everybody’s changing the rules.”
The play, originally presented at the 2018 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, skewers and satirizes the ideas that Roger is parroting, and the manner in which he absorbed them, with copious amounts of humor. Most cannily, Skinner makes Roger sympathetic, even likable, rather than obviously loathsome. The casting of Krasinski is a masterstroke, with the actor’s inherent charm and warm appeal fascinatingly contrasting with the frequently loathsome ideas his character is expressing. Addressing us in the same folky, self-deprecating manner as he did playing Jim Halpert in The Office, the actor instantly has the audience on his side, providing an uncomfortable tension to the proceedings.
Though Skinner never writes less than compellingly, and Krasinski is willing and able to go where she takes him, I wasn’t. Whether we are being asked to sympathize with Roger as a victim (doubtful) or to consider our own vulnerability to his brand of charming awfulness (no thanks), I could fathom no reason, beyond the intelligence of the performance and production, to spend 85 minutes with him. We already live with him 24/7.
| 2025 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
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