Review: The Ugly One (Sideshow Theatre)

The Ugly One

Written by Marius von Mayenburg
Directed by Seth Bockley
at Oracle Theatre, 3809 N. Broadway (map)
thru Nov 20 | tickets: $20-$25 | more info

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Playful satire deconstructs conformity, celebrity worship

Sideshow Theatre presents

The Ugly One

Review by Lawrence Bommer

In Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” Gregor Samsa wakes up to find he’s a cockroach: Suddenly his claims to human dignity and rights are undermined by six legs and a carapace. Likewise, employing gallows humor and deadpan irony, German playwright Marius von Mayenburg delivers a 65-minute parable on the relativity of beauty, a clever exercise that fares well in Sideshow Theatre Company’s Chicago premiere.

Mayenburg invents Lette, a flunky who demonstrates industrial plugs to possible clients, is married to a conditionally devoted wife, and is rising rapidly in his company. That is until Lette’s boss informs him that he’s no longer slated for sales because he is actually the ugliest person in the world. His wife Fanny, who can only look him in the left eye, confirms the cruel but clinical stigmatization. Desperate to escape his sudden hideousness, Lette undergoes a dangerous cosmetic operation—and is just as suddenly transformed into the handsomest guy on earth.

Alas, Lette’s looks are so perfect that in no time everyone wants to look like him—and, unfortunately, he wasn’t able to copyright his gorgeous features. So, going under the knife in order to feel good by looking great, slowly everyone undergoes the same operation–until Lette’s once-rare perfection has been cloned everywhere.

But, as W.S. Gilbert wrote, “When everyone is somebody, then no one’s anybody.” The rich 73-year-old doyenne and her gay son who once adored him now find Lette dismissively familiar. Well, of course–when the supply increases, the demand diminishes. What for Lette is an identity crisis triggered by his inability to distinguish himself from everyone else becomes for the rest of the world an explosion in contagious narcissism.

So beauty, an abstraction that couldn’t be more specific, remains in the beholder’s eye—both entirely subjective and non-negotiable.

Seth Bockley’s crisp staging varies the lighting levels to distinguish the domestic scenes from the medical and corporate ones. Rightly, the actors refuse to become one inch deeper than they’re written. Robert L. Oakes plays Lette with a Candide-like naivete that makes him a blank slate on which everyone writes what they want and sees what they desire. Nina O’Keefe efficiently plays his wife, the rich old lady and the surgeon’s assistant—all named Fanny since this is a world of interchangeable parts. Likewise, as the same Schefller, Fred A. Wellisch plays Lette’s reptilian boss and Teutonic surgeon, while as Karlmann, Nate Whelden is both the gay son who craves Lette as well as his assistant.

A play that’s exactly as long as it needs to be, The Ugly One threatens to become a 21^st century “Frankenstein” but finally breaks no barriers. Still, it uses a sprightly playfulness to archly deconstruct society’s contradictory extremes of conformity and celebrity worship. It’s a satire that earns its stage.

Rating: ★★★

The Ugly One continues through November 20th at Oracle Theatre, 3809 N. Broadway (map), with performances Thursdays-Saturdays at 8pm, and Sundays at 3pm. Tickets are $20-$25, and are available in advance through Tix.com. More information at SideshowTheatre.org. (Running time: 65 minutes without an intermission)

artists

cast

Robert L. Oakes, Nina O’Keefe, Fred Wellisch and Nate Whelden

behind the scenes

Marius von Mayenburg (playwright); Seth Bockley (director); Maja Zade (translator); Megan A. Smith (asst. director); Taree Chadwick (stage manager); Joe Schermoly (scenic design); Izumi Inaba(costumes); Mac Vaughey (lighting); Christopher M. LaPorte (sound, original music); Katie Clarkson (props); Gina Di Salvo (dramaturg); Benjamin Dawson (prod. manager); Navi Afshar (asst. prod. manager); Laura Nessler (asst. dramaturg)