Bringer of Doom

Tweet

Alcohol, depression, drugs, blackmail, attempted suicide, attempted murder – and mainly revenge: these are the dark elements of Joe Thristino’s black comedy Bringer of Doom now having a second production at The Players Theatre after having been seen there in April 2023 with a different cast. It has a classic sit-com concept which has been used before. Unfortunately, Bringer of Doom’s humor is neither as biting nor as witty as it needs to be and the actors struggle with underwritten roles. Director Mark Koenig who staged the previous production keeps the play moving along but has not helped the cast find more depth in their roles.

Lotte has had a fraught relationship with her mother Esme, so much so that she is unable to get on with her life and wants revenge for a terrible hurt: at her birthday dinner in her favorite restaurant, her mother got up and announced to all assembled that Lotte’s artist fiancé Lawrence was in a sexual relationship with his art dealer. It was not so much Lawrence’s betrayal that got to Lotte but that her mother humiliated her in front of all of her friends and family. However, the way Esme saw it was that she was saving Lotte from terrible pain down the line. Lotte also believes that her mother is responsible for the death of her father when she was still a teenager.

Esme is coming to dinner for the first time in years and to help with her revenge, Lotte has hired – or rather coerced – an unemployed alcoholic comedian Demetrius to roast her mother as part of the festivities. She has brought him home from a bar, cleaned him up, and offered him free room and board for his services for this one night. However, nothing goes as planned. The arrogant and imperious Esme arrives with her toy-boy Clancy, a craniosacral therapist (i.e. masseur), and announces that they are getting married. Demetrius does not do much of a job of insulting Esme and Clancy, and Lotte confronts her mother with her charge of murder only to hear an alternate version of what happened to her father who apparently was not the saint that Lotte believed him to be. She then moves on to the next part of her plan which includes a near death experience for all of them.

The play doesn’t tell us enough about any of the characters which gives the actors little to work from. What does Lotte do for a living or is she a trust fund kid? As Lena Drake plays her, she seems totally adrift besides her hatred of her mother. While David Z. Lanson’s Demetrius is described as a professional (albeit failed) comedian, he has nothing to say that is very funny. The jokes tend to fall flat. Asking for drink, Demetrious says, “Anything you’d use on a medieval axe wound is fine.”

Further on:

Demetrius: I don’t know if that is a toaster or a demon.

Lotte: It’s a lamp.

In reference to a later drink, Demetrius asks, “What is this, tap water?”

As the entitled Esme, Laura Botsacos is self-absorbed, egotistical and unsympathetic. However, the author makes us think that she is the wisest one of all as she is usually right. It is she who says “At what point in life do we stop blaming mom?”  – a statement the audience must be thinking as well. While James Andrew Fraser’s Clancy at first appears very dense, he does have a large vocabulary and catches many nuances, so he is not as dumb as he comes across on a first impression.

Alfred Schatz’s set design of Lotte’s color-coordinated living room is fine for the play though some of the objects take a while to figure (like a bicycle stood up to be used as a clothes rack.) However, a large table covered with various items before the stage apron is never used and is very distracting. What it was intended for we are never told. The uncredited costumes miss their opportunity to say something about the characters other than the fact that Esme seems overdressed for dinner at her daughter’s house. Zachary Dulny’s lighting does not appear to change except for the transition from Act One to Act Two (without an intermission.)

Joe Thristino’s Bringer of Doom is an interesting attempt at existential theater of the absurd with a great many twists and turns. Unfortunately, the writing is neither outrageous enough nor funny enough to fit the bill. Under Mark Koenig’s direction the cast of four give rather superficial performances as eccentric characters. Maybe if they had been more kooky and outlandish the play would have been more entertaining.

Bringer of Doom (through August 25, 2024)

Skimble Skamble Production

The Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal Street, between West 3^rd Street and Minetta Lane, in Manhattan

Running time: one hour and 35 minutes without an intermission