Past Reviews

Regional Reviews: Los Angeles


NOgoodDEED


Nick Cernoch
It has been said that it's a terrible thing to be judged for the rest of your life based on the worst thing you've ever done. Matt Pelfrey's world premiere play NOgoodDEED considers the possibility of being judged for the rest of your life based on the best thing you've ever done. And it turns out that this is no picnic either. Imagine being constantly challenged to live up to a moment of greatness; constantly harassed when your private life isn't as picture perfect as the hero-worshippers would like; constantly threatened by people you thought you knew, who want to take you down a peg for thinking you're so much better than they are.

Pelfrey dedicated his play to Richard Jewell, and it's easy to see why. Jewell, the hero of the Olympic Park Bombing who was wrongly accused, mocked and convicted in the press, must have, at his lowest point, regretted ever finding the bomb and saving countless lives. NOgoodDEED takes that moment and runs with it, considering what would happen if a hero actually had the chance to undo what he did, and just go back to being a normal person, with normal, non-hero-sized problems.

NOgoodDEED revolves around three hero characters: a Richard-Jewell-like security guard who discovers a bomb in an amusement park, only to be suspected of planting it; a fireman who, at great risk to himself, saves a little girl trapped in a well, but then loses hero status for drinking and womanizing; and the real protagonist of this story, Josh Jaxon. Josh is a standard nerdy teenager. He hangs out with his best friend, isn't that great with girls, gets bullied by the football players, and draws comic boo—graphic novels in his spare time. But one day, it all comes together for him. Despite usually being on the receiving end of abuse by bullies (and his mother's boyfriend), he manages to get the upper hand in a fight, and ends up saving the girl of his dreams from a rapist/murderer she encounters (while taking the all-too-typical shortcut home through a bad neighborhood). This wins Josh everything he never had—money, fame, adoration, female adoration, and easy access to drugs. But he's still the same nerdy kid, and he's completely unable to cope with it all, and no better equipped to deal with the bullies who begrudge him his success.

I just noted the stereotypical circumstances of Josh's heroic act. But the stereotype here isn't bad writing on the part of Pelfrey; it's intentional. Josh conveniently saving the girl he adores from a vicious attacker reads suspiciously like the standard origin story of a comic book superhero because that's exactly what it is. The graphic novel Josh is writing is the story of one "Hellbound Hero," a seriously bad-ass fighter who can rip out your heart and boil your eyeballs with the sheer power of his will. This is who Josh desperately wanted to be when the schoolyard bullies were shoving his head in a toilet; and when the fame (and the drugs) become too much for him to handle, it is into this persona that his mind retreats.

NOgoodDEED is, in some ways, a depressing and accusatory play about how we destroy what we idolize. But what makes it a crazy fun piece of theatre is that it takes place in a surreal world where comic book superheroes come to life, and the world of live actors on stage is interwoven with the world of graphic novels on upstage screens. So when the second act starts talking about time travel, cosmic energy, and white kryptonite, you're willing to go along for the ride.

In a lot of ways, I want to hold this production up to the producers of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark and say, "This is how you put a graphic novel on stage," with the tech supporting and amplifying, but never overwhelming, the story. Josh dreams of flying while standing on an unsteady skateboard while the night sky behind him moves, perfecting the illusion, aggressive stage combat is made ultra-violent in accompanying comic book imagery, and a climactic super-power fight has actors pushing their empty arms toward each other—lights and sounds give us the power bursts they're exchanging. My hat is off to set designer John Iacovelli, lighting designer Dan Weingarten, sound designer Doug Newell, graphic illustrator Ben Matsuya, projection designer Jason H. Thompson, fight choreographer Brian Danner, and director Dámaso Rodriguez, who brought it all together to terrific effect.

Pelfrey's play itself is to be commended for the out-of-the-box writing that interweaves superheroes with regular heroes, and turns a David Letterman Top Ten list into a brutal nightmare for one man. Nonetheless, it still needs some work. The hour-long first act feels much longer; having all three heroes get raised up and flung aside is necessary to the plot, but we know it's going to happen so it feels like we're waiting for the play to catch up with us. The script contains quite a bit satire of daytime and late-night talk show hosts, as well as agents and newscasters, but all of these folks are fairly easy targets and Pelfrey's attacks don't add anything new. While, clearly, media hype is a big part of the problem NOgoodDEED seeks to address, the play is much more interesting when it addresses the effects of the hype, rather than the hype itself.

NOgoodDEED runs at [Inside] the Ford through February 26, 2012. For tickets and information, see www.iamhellbound.com.

NOgoodDEED by Matt Pelfrey; Directed by Dámaso Rodriguez. Produced by Furious Theatre Company. Scenic Design John Iacovelli; Lighting Design Dan Weingarten; Costume Design Christy Hauptman; Video Projection Design Jason H. Thompson; Props Design Shannon Dedman; Sound Design & Original Composition Doug Newell; Fight Choreography Brian Danner; Original Graphic Illustration Ben Matsuya; Production Manager Susan K. Coulter; Stage Manager Christie Wright Gilmore; Assistant Stage Manager Deidre Works; Scenic Painting Nick Santiago; Set Construction William Lidderdale; Rigging Kyle Weisshar; Electricians Evan Drane, Megan Hong, Casey Kimble; Public Relations Lucy Pollak; Marketing & Graphic Design Jessica Smith.

Cast:
Josh Jaxon - Nick Cernoch
Bryant Feld/Fireman - Shawn Lee
Danny Diamond/Security Guard - Troy Metcalf
Danielle/Mars/Agent - Katie Marie Davies
Ron/Hellbound Hero/Letterman/Spider - Robert Pescovitz
Linda/Talk Show Host - Johanna McKay
Media Vulture 2/Pruitt/Lawyer/Vagrant/Senator - Dana Kelly, Jr.
Brandon - Danny Lacy
Media Vulture 1 - Stefanie Demetriades
Kyle - Adam Critchlow
Drew - David C. Hernandez
Media Vulture 3/Leno/Krank/Paul/Guy - Brian Danner

Photo: Anthony Masters


- Sharon Perlmutter