In God’s Hat
Written by Rhett Rossi
Directed by Joe Jahraus
at Profiles Theatre, 4139 N. Broadway (map)
thru Oct 13 | tickets: $35-$40 | more info
Check for half-price tickets
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Potentially thought-provoking work stumbles in the execution
Profiles Theatre presents
In God’s Hat
Review by Clint May
This one took awhile to sink in. Walking out of the Midwest premiere of Brett Rossi‘s critically-acclaimed In God’s Hat, I had mixed feelings. It’s taken me awhile to pinpoint that nagging sense of what did and didn’t work here. Dark comedy is a favorite genre of mine, and Hat finds some very funny moments of dry humor in its physically and emotionally bleak pulp landscape. I’m certainly not the first to compare the work to something the Coen Bros might have written–it’s one of the first thing a fan of their work would notice (with some hints of Tarantino and Sam Shepard for good measure).
Exiting prison after 10 years for child abuse, Mitch (Larry Neumann Jr.) is more than surprised to see his estranged younger brother Roy (Darrel W. Cox) laconically toying with a football at the gate. His post-prison plan is quickly abandoned as Roy decides to take him back to Oklahoma, a prospect which he regards with some trepidation. At the nearby fleabag motel, the pair are finally able to slowly dance around the topics that have been stewing for a decade: betrayal, responsibility, faith, free will, and atonement. Roy is a prototypical soft-spoken cowboy-philosopher linked to what he considers a sick man through a cruel twist of chance. Mitch feels equally trapped by a sickness of the mind outside his control. "The Good Lord" conspires to throw them an extreme chance at reconciliation when He puts Mitch’s failed prison assassin Early (Bruce Cronander) at the same time and place. Early’s ability to do evil things comes as much from his righteous faith as it does his Aryan Brotherhood affiliation. This dichotomy gives Roy one of the better philosophical meanderings of the production concerning what God actually is and why He won’t ever appear. Eventually, Roy must choose what action to take in a situation with few (read: none) good options and set into motion revelations that lead to a place where maybe, just maybe, healing can begin.
Rossi knows how to mine a situation for the dark irony that makes us laugh more in self-defense than your typical "ha ha" joke. Much of the early scenes derive humor from the awkward riffs of dialog between Mitch and Roy. Cox plays to his considerable strength for understated performances and gets to deliver some of the best lines in his now trademark deadpan style. Cronander is eerily, believably intense as an overbearing man of conviction with a veneer of politeness overlaying an undercurrent of insanity. His scene with Cox is definitely the more tense as one of two "Telltale Heart” scenes.
What In God’s Hat snags on is the fine tuning. A few too many elements skew towards the zany, undercutting the tension and subsequently undermining the necessity for laughter to cut back. Neumann, a talent I’ve long enjoyed, would appear to be an ideal casting choice here. Instead, as the production progresses, he feels a bit more "Don Knotts" than a sympathetic portrait of a fragile, tortured pedophile (see the ‘can’t catch a football’ running gag or a pratfall-laden attempt to hide a body). Early’s fellow “Brother” Arthur (John Victor Allen) feels more like an eccentric uncle instead of a menacing threat. As paced by Director Joe Jahraus, moments of incredibly dark reveals bump into humor in what begins to feel claustrophobically ADHD where a turn of the screw approach would have allowed the creeping sense of dread to permeate the audience more effectively. Dark or light, humor is all about the timing. Perhaps it was felt that if the audience had time to examine the events during an intermission, it would ruin the momentum, but in this instance it would serve as a period for reflection on actions before diving into the land of consequences.
Staged against a very intimate and detailed set by Shaun Renfro, Hat contains a key twist of a revelation that made me question the very necessity of the scale of the more overt events. If Rossi’s point is to make us feel sympathetic to monsters through Mitch’s past as a bearer of evil for his brother, wouldn’t that be enough of a hammer blow to winnow this to an intimate two-man production? Those early scenes would seem to indicate that the interactions alone would be engrossing enough to carry a nuanced look into a heart of darkness.
Rating: ★★½
In God’s Hat continues through October 13th at Profiles Theatre’s Main Stage, 4139 N. Broadway (map), with performances Thursdays/Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 5pm and 8pm, Sundays 7pm. Tickets are $35-$40, and are available by phone (773-549-1815) or online through PrintTixUSA.com (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More information at ProfilesTheatre.org. (Running time: 90 minutes, NO intermission)
Photos by Michael Brosilow
artists
cast
John Victor Allen (Arthur), Darrell W. Cox (Roy), Bruce Cronander (Early), Larry Neumann, Jr. (Mitch)
behind the scenes
Joe Jahraus (director), Shaun Renfro (set design), Mike Durst (lighting design), Jeffrey Levin (sound design, original live music), Raquel Adorno (costume design), Eric Burgher (asst. director), Michael Brosilow (photos)
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