St. Louis Actors’ Studio’s newest offering is in its tradition of off-kilter shows. Artistic Director William Roth obviously has a taste for work that’s absurdist or close to it, and it’s come to be something regular audiences at SLAS expect. A Behanding in Spokane fits right into that. The uninitiated might expect from the title that it’s a riff on Sleepless in Seattle, but this Martin McDonagh work shares little but the state of Washington and the initial of the city concerned.
Jerry Vogel plays Carmichael, who’s just checked into a somewhat seedy hotel in Spokane, and is trying to reach his mother to tell her he’s arrived safely. He’s rather old to be checking in with Ma, but we hear a strange noise, he ends the call and goes to investigate the source of the noise, a closet. There’s a man in there, but Carmichael silences him with a blow to his head with his pistol, and abruptly closes the closet, because someone is knocking at the door.
It’s the bellman, to judge from his attire, but it turns out he – Mervyn, as acted by William Roth – was also the receptionist who checked Carmichael in. And he thought he heard a gunshot in Carmichael’s room.
Carmichael fends him off for the time being, but soon we discover that he’s in Spokane in search of a hand, and he’s purchasing it from a couple of local cannabis dealers. One is the unfortunate gent in the closet, Micheal Lowe, and the other is the gent’s girlfriend Leerin Campbell.
A hand? Not a prosthesis, a real hand, yes. Carmichael lost his in a traumatic assault as a child, and has been searching for it for years. The crowning indignity was that when the perpetrators walked off and left him bleeding, they waved goodbye to him with his own hand, italics definitely his.
Vogel seems to be enjoying himself, not that he’s overacting, but it’s just a truly juicy role, and he inhabits it extremely well. The goofy-seeming Mervyn is a different sort of role for Roth. His body language as he harasses Carmichael is even more impressive than his silliness. The dynamics between the couple, as portrayed by Campbell and Lowe are unexpected; she’s the tough one; he’s the softie, but the chemistry between them is believable.
Wayne Salomon directed, pulling things together in his usual competent style and utilizing Patrick Huber’s set and, in particular, his lighting very well. Watch for the times when Vogel’s character sits in a chair downstage and is very quiet – the face in shadow is very effective.
The problem is Martin McDonagh’s script. McDonagh’s curriculum vitae is a very respectable one, with plays like The Beauty Queen of Leename and The Lieutenant of Inishmore, as well as films like the newly-released Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
This is, quite simply, not up to snuff. There are some wondrous bits, like Carmichael’s description of the bigger kids who cost him his hand, “hillbilly detritus”. But the characters, particularly the young couple, seem to be an outsider’s idea of Americans, and their dialogue, while it may be authentic in the amount of profanity that would be used in real life, keeps the play from moving along. It is not by any means up to his usual standard.
It’s shock theater, more good than bad, certainly. It could just do with some re-write.
A Behanding in Spokane
through December 17
St. Louis Actors’ Studio
Gaslight Theater
360 N. Boyle
314-458-2978