Haunting dramas about the dark secrets of youthful male bonding are really best set in the British isles—no other society offers quite the right atmosphere. They can be effectively done in East Coast prep schools perhaps, but those are faux British, really.
Three nine-year-old boys (Daniel Behrendt, John Wilson, Layne Manzer) growing up in working class, suburban Scotland in the 1980's befriend an imaginative, introverted newcomer named Gordon, whom they ironically nickname "Giggles" (played by Kevin V. Smith). As their new friend gradually reveals the reasons for his emotional detachment—a dead mother and cruelly abusive father—he also shows them his method of coping, which involves weaving gloriously resonant and heartbreaking fairy tales. (At which point the other three actors act them out.) Behrendt is the only one of the three who seems to form a genuine emotional connection with Giggles; the other two regard him with a mixture of fear and secret admiration.
The story moves into the characters' late teens and the present-day; framing shows them settled into a premature middle-age. At this point, Giggles has disappeared—he has either died or has run away from the community, something the other three characters debate as they struggle with the meaning of their friendship with the troubled boy genius.
Douglas Maxwell's play is rich, moving, funny and real, and well served by Carlo Lorenzo Garcia's direction, which keeps the right balance of tension and humor. Wilson's simple mountaintop set, which was the boys childhood meeting place, evokes the sense of both danger and longing for escape that permeates the play.
All four actors are excellent, but it is a testament to Maxwell's writing that even the offstage characters seem to be entirely real, fully integrated parts of this play's world. It's a beautiful piece about how a youthful desire to achieve greatness is, at its core, more about a desire for acceptance.
Reviewed by Centerstage!
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