Who Is Tyler Durden?
Written, Adapted and Directed by Cody Evans
at Prop Thtr, 3502 N. Elston (map)
thru Sept 20 | tickets: $15-$20 | more info
Check for half-price tickets
Read review
Needs to pack more of a wallop
Bare Knuckle Productions presents
Who Is Tyler Durden?
Review by Clint May
In later interviews, “Fight Club” author Chuck Palahniuk would say that he was “embarrassed” by the superiority of the film version over his own novel. David Fincher’s critically-lauded work streamlined the scattered plot and emphasized the romance angle, which, it turns out, was Palahniuk’s intent: “the whole story is about a man reaching the point where he can commit to a woman.” In Who Is Tyler Durden?, Cody Evans uses both Palhniuk’s book and Fincher’s movie to create this theatrical adaptation, adding in a few notes of his own while hewing pretty close to the two sources at the same time. The resulting mash up is intermittently successful, but given the oddness of the source material, adding even a few more twists to the mix was hardly necessary. What might have been a provocative updated exploration of the psyche is—as my evening’s guest put it—not that much more than a tribute band-style reenactment of a greatest hit.
Bare Knuckle Productions’ rendition adds some theoretically interesting gender twists to the basic plot. ‘Tyler’ is now a triumvirate of two men and a woman (DJ Douglass, Freddy Lynn Wilson and Glenese Hand), and some of the ladies from the unnamed Narrator’s (Jeff Newman) late night support groups get in on the underground fight action. Scenes of the dying Chloe (Tori Johns) kicking serious man ass are an enjoyable/cathartic addition. The creation of three Durdens is unsatisfactorily explained away as a personality spawning personalities while adding little. It would seem to be the reason for the title change, but the three do not individuate the different Tyler’s with enough nuance to justify their separation. This is a missed chance to explore the nature of the Narrator’s subconscious—e.g., his latent sexual desires (he says he “wants” Tyler in his illusory love triangle of himself, Tyler and Marla).
As would be expected from a show like this from a company with that name, the fight choreography from Missy Styles is inventive and surprisingly visceral. One of the major problems with trying to adapt this story to the stage is that, while you can pontificate endlessly in a book and have narration move over scenes in a movie, the Narrator here must constantly stop and lecture the audience. There’s a lot of ground to cover, and it bogs down the pacing despite Newman’s engaging performance. It’s a shame that the three Tylers aren’t convincingly as charismatic or threatening as they should be. Some of their scenes read downright silly. Ashley Agbay’s Marla isn’t yet the manic pixie nightmare girl of the story, but there’s glimmers that she could be. One of the problems is that everyone reads so young that it’s hard to imagine they’ve had enough life to beat them down such that they need to beat someone up in response. Another issue is purely logistical—the press release called for a 90 min runtime, which was then upped fifteen minutes, with a final that my watch said ran nearly two hours with no intermission. This and a few other clues—as well as the resulting finished product—make the entirety feel like a work in progress.
Given the cult fascination with the film (I certainly remember being blown away in 1999 along with that other anti-establishment classic “Office Space”), there’s bound to be some interest in a theatrical adaptation. Who is Tyler Durden? might do well to go further from its source material to make its existence feel more necessary and relevant. After giving us a few surprises, it feels strange to go out on the exact same note as the movie—right down to The Pixies. It should be noted that the book’s ending is considerably darker. There’s a nagging sense that there’s more story to tell from one of the most famous unreliable narrators in recent literature; something that updates the story with more than a few references to contemporary culture tossed in.
Rating: ★★
Who Is Tyler Durden? continues through September 20th at Prop Thtr, 3502 N. Elston (map), with performances Thursdays-Saturdays at 8pm. Tickets are $15-$20, and are available by phone (773-998-BNP1) or online through their website (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More information at BareKnuckleProductions.org. (Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes, no intermission)
artists
cast
Jeff Newman (Narrator), DJ Douglass (Tyler 1), Freddy Lynn Wilson (Tyler 2), Glenese Hand (Tyler 3), Tori Johns (Chloe, Fight Captain), Greg Manizza (Angel Face), Derek Dziak (Bob), Ashley Agbay (Marla), Kyle Fiorelli, Christian Creasy, Jimmy Wilson, Jen Walden (Ensemble), Cody Evans, Dean Beever (special appearances)
behind the scenes
Cody Evans (director, writer, adaptor), Keith Hand (lighting design), Jeremy Fodor (sound design), Missy Styles (fight design), Glenese Hand (producer), Chaz Schoenbeck, Adam Michaels (videographers)
14-0848
