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Photo by Don Kellogg

Sunday, May 20, 2012

COCK

Quite possibly one of the most engrossing, unique, emotionally charged plays of the season.  Throw away all your theatrical pretense and spend 90 minutes immersed in a battle over John.  The tidal wave Mike Bennett created over at the Royal Court Theatre in London has crashed on our shores at the Duke Theatre on 42nd with much ado. Hell, the name alone has caused a stir - notably the New York Times won't even print the title of the play in its publications.

The controversy over the name outside the theatre is equally matched with a raw, no-holds-barred, gut-wrenching battle of wills inside the theatre - which by the way is constructed out of bare plywood made to look just like a real illicit cock-fighting ring.  And the analogy to a cock fight runs throughout the entire production too.  The actors circle a mere the 12" diameter performance space (i.e in the round) with audience members mere inches away as the battle brews.  The scenes are punctuated by a bell as if signaling the end a round in a prize fight - except here the prize is John himself.

Gay, Straight, Bi.  Love, relationships, and labels.  Wants, needs and desires.   All covered at break-neck speed and blazing intensity in the brief encounter we have with M, W, F and John (we are to assume they stand for Male, Female, and Father).  You have to understand one thing for the entire premise of this play to capture you - and that is that everyone on stage has issues, dependencies, desires, and insecurities.  If you don't see that - you will immediately jump to the well, he or she should have just walked away from that mess 5 minutes into the performance.  But as long as you recognize each character's weakness, position of strength over the other, and his/her flaws you quickly realize that this is an epic battle that quite frankly may come to a conclusion but will have no clear winner in the end.

Sometimes the simplest of ideas can pack the most punch.   Run, Don't walk, to see Jason Butler Harner, Amanda Quaid, Cory Michael Smith, and Cotter Smith engage in the battle of their lives.