15
Jul/14

THE GYRE: ENTER AT FOREST LAWN

15
Jul/14
(photo by Russ Rowland)

Jack (Mark Roberts) proves to Jessica (Sarah Lemp) that there’s no business quite like show business in ENTER AT FOREST LAWN (photo by Russ Rowland)

Walkerspace
46 Walker St. between Church St. & Broadway
July 14 – August 9, $40 ($65 Gyre ticket package with The Qualification of Douglas Evans)
www.theamoralists.com

Last year, playwright Mark Roberts and director Jay Stull teamed up with the Amoralists for one of 2013’s best shows, the outrageously funny black comedy Rantoul and Die, which we called “a brilliantly conceived and executed play that examines the darker side of human nature in beautifully bizarre ways.” Pretty much the same can be said about their latest collaboration, Enter at Forest Lawn, which opened at Walkerspace on July 14, kicking off the Amoralists’ (HotelMotel, The Bad and the Better) eighth season as part of “The Gyre,” which is being billed as “a two play repertory exploring man’s vicious cycles.” (The second work is Derek Ahonen’s intricately self-reflexive and complex The Qualification of Douglas Evans, which opens July 15.) In Enter at Forest Lawn, Roberts delves into something he knows rather well, network television — he is the creator of the CBS comedy Mike & Molly — starring as Jack Story, the show runner for a hit comedy on the verge of a major syndication deal. But the program’s star, Uncle Danny, a Charlie Sheen-like madman prone to violence, drugs, alcohol, and underage women, is out of control, turning publicist Stanley (David Lanson) into a whimpering fool. Jack sends his mousey assistant, Jessica (Sarah Lemp), to get Danny’s signature on the syndication contract, giving her explicit instructions on how to approach him. Meanwhile, Jack’s former assistant, Marla (Anna Stromberg), now a network executive, wants Jack to find a job for her nephew, Clinton (Amoralists cofounder and associate artistic director Matthew Pilieci), which turns out to be a little more complicated than expected, leading to a surprising conclusion for all involved.

Roberts and Stull (The Capables) pack a whole lot into seventy edge-of-your-seat minutes, highlighted by the actors’ heavily stylized, exaggerated movements that define their characters. Roberts, a former stand-up comedian, is sensational as Jack, dancing around David Harwell’s spare set — essentially an odd desk surrounded by doors — like a herky-jerky boxer, ready to throw proverbial punches at every chance, willing to do whatever it takes to get the syndication deal done. The rest of the cast also works with oversized physical presentation and quirky motion: Stanley is bent over protecting his balls and looking like he has to go to the bathroom; Jessica holds her hands like little paws, evoking a frightened forest creature, and occasionally twirling like a young innocent; Clinton is stooped as if ready to pounce at any moment; and Marla sinuously winds about the set, a strong sexual being who knows the power her body holds and is not afraid to use it. Enter at Forest Lawn is a biting, cynical behind-the-scenes look at Hollywood, confirming some of our worst nightmares about what really goes on backstage. “Stanley, I have been in this business, man and boy, for over twenty-five years,” Jack says early on, “and one of the few undeniable facts I’ve learned is that if it ain’t on the screen, it never fucking happened.” Thankfully for those of us not in the business, Roberts, Stull, and the ever-adventurous Amoralists have brought this frantic craziness to the stage for all of us to experience.