By Jenn McKee
If nothing else, Breathe Art Theatre Project's timing is impeccable.
For what better time of year to stage a show that features a suitcase full of bloody, severed human hands than Halloween?
Martin McDonagh's "A Behanding in Spokane," now having its Michigan premiere at The Furniture Factory, focuses on a man named Carmichael (Dan Jaroslaw) who's been searching for his lost hand for nearly half a century. (His story is that as a child, some bullies held his arm to the railroad track, then ran off, waving goodbye to him with his own hand.) When an interracial couple (Katie Galazka and Sean Rodriguez) ineptly tries to pull a fast one on him, Carmichael chains the two to his hotel room's radiator. But the hotel's nosey, eccentric clerk Mervyn (Joel Mitchell) soon insinuates himself into the situation, making it spiral even further into chaos.
Everything about the play, and the 80-minute production, indicates that we're not supposed to take any of this too seriously. Carmichael's back story has some serious holes, as Mervyn humorously points out late in the show. The young lovers are not only incompetent, but make one crazy-bad decision after another. Set designer/director Andrew Huff casts the hotel room in uniform whiteness, giving it a cartoonishly blank feel while also providing a backdrop that looks all the more exaggerated when the blood starts to spill. (Hats off to stage manager Alexandre Bleau, who has a pretty big cleaning job each night). And Mervyn's lines, and the broad, comical brush strokes Mitchell employs in his performance, practically scream that the world of the play is, indeed, one that is off-kilter from the one in which we live.
All well and good. But when, on opening night, we arrived at a quintessential McDonagh moment of gruesome absurdity – wherein the characters are wildly throwing the severed hands at each other, food-fight style – there was little to no laughter.
A black comedy like "Behanding" pretty much eschews emotional investment in its characters, relying instead on the virtues of unpredictability and wit – that is, it aims to entertain more than move. The problem is that McDonagh's play is just not all that funny (and occasionally, in fact, borders on the offensive). Plus, despite McDonagh's heightened, over-the-top storyline, I found myself weirdly bored during more than one scene.
Even so, Jaroslaw – in a role originated by (and seemingly tailor-made for) Christopher Walken – exudes a fittingly mysterious menace. And more than anyone else on stage, Mitchell seems keyed in to McDonagh's vision, giving the audience a characterization that's actually fun to watch.
If only there'd been more fun …
REVIEW:
'A Behanding in Spokane'
Breathe Art Theatre at The Furniture Factory, 4126 3rd St., Detroit. Friday-Sunday through Oct. 30. $20, plus pay-what-you-can Sundays. 248-982-4121. http://www.breathearttheatre.com
