{"id":14631,"date":"2014-10-08T22:15:32","date_gmt":"2014-10-09T05:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=14631"},"modified":"2014-10-09T08:06:06","modified_gmt":"2014-10-09T15:06:06","slug":"powerful-drama-in-marin-county-features-best-acting-job-of-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/powerful-drama-in-marin-county-features-best-acting-job-of-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Powerful drama in Marin County features \u2018best acting job of year\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Woody’s [rating: 4.5]<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Charlie (Nicholas Pelczar) tries to comfort his caregiver, Liz (Liz Sklar), in \u201cThe Whale.\u201d Photo by Kevin Berne.<\/p><\/div>\n

Charlie slowly has been committing suicide by food.<\/p>\n

Ounce by ounce.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s now somewhere between 550 and 600 pounds.<\/p>\n

Playwright Samuel D. Hunter, 33, just last month was named a $625,000 MacArthur Foundation \u201cgenius grant\u201d fellow \u2014 in part for creating \u201cunlikely protagonists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charlie, front and center in a new drama at the Marin Theatre Company, certainly fits that category.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not a character I\u2019ll soon forget.<\/p>\n

Yet \u201cThe Whale\u201d also deals with a mysteriously dead lover; a woman who\u2019s become the protagonist\u2019s friend, nurse and enabler; a missionary seeking to relocate his faith; and a daughter Charlie abandoned when realizing he was gay.<\/p>\n

Plus wide-ranging targets: faith, death, parenting, teaching, obesity, truth.<\/p>\n

Hunter, of course, has a resume jammed with plotlines that are upsetting, sad and profoundly stuffed with gravitas.<\/p>\n

Including the enigmatic, dark and edgy comedy about faith and forgiveness, \u201cA Bright New Boise,\u201d which was produced at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Whale,\u201d an intermission-less drama a few minutes short of two hours, is never easy to watch \u2014 even with the persistent injection of quirky humor that makes the audience laugh nervously.<\/p>\n

But, like the many references to biblical Jonah and fictional \u201cMoby Dick,\u201d that\u2019s no surprise.<\/p>\n

The minute I walk into the theater I know what\u2019s ahead could be bleak: The set by Michael Locher forewarns me.<\/p>\n

A grungy, overstuffed couch rests on chipped cinder blocks. In front are <\/em><\/strong>king-sized food and drink containers. Piled high all around is clutter. A coat of fresh paint wouldn\u2019t help the dingy walls.<\/p>\n

Effectively depressing.<\/p>\n

Yet nothing could prepare me for the powerful, spot-on performance of Nicholas Pelczar as a lumbering shut-in who\u2019s perpetually apologizing and eating himself to death because he\u2019s grieving for his boyfriend.<\/p>\n

For me, it\u2019s unquestionably the best acting job of the year.<\/p>\n

Pelczar convinces me, in spite of his average-sized head in a gigantic fat suit, that Charlie\u2019s insatiable appetite is authentic.<\/p>\n

How?<\/p>\n

By obsessively wolfing down mounds of Kentucky Fried Chicken and chunks of a Subway foot-long while slurping an oversized soda.<\/p>\n

Wheezing with every other word.<\/p>\n

While struggling to get up so he can shuffle to the bathroom clinging to his walker.<\/p>\n

Pelczar makes me believe, too, in Charlie\u2019s rigidity (\u201cI don\u2019t go to hospitals\u201d) even as his blood pressure climbs to a sky-high 238 over 134 and he\u2019s plagued with heart problems and endless other ailments.<\/p>\n

He also persuades me to accept the character\u2019s divided persona: an emotional devastation coupled with shameless optimism.<\/p>\n

The supporting cast also dazzles.<\/p>\n

A 17-year-old novice actor, Christina Oeschger, adroitly captures Charlie\u2019s antisocial, estranged daughter, Ellie, who\u2019s failing her classes and busily posting a \u201chate blog.\u201d<\/p>\n

She spits out her misery: \u201cJust being around you is disgusting,\u201d she tells the dad she hasn\u2019t seen since she was two, a man who\u2019s bribed her to visit.<\/p>\n

And in a chorus of pain, Adam Magill aptly flounders as Elder Thomas as Charlie\u2019s caregiver becomes almost too intense to watch because of Liz Sklar\u2019s performance skills.<\/p>\n

Michelle Maxson isn\u2019t on stage much as Mary, Charlie\u2019s ex, but when she is, her acting chops are quickly visible.<\/p>\n

Jasson Minadakis, the company\u2019s artistic director for nine years, is once again at the helm. His work on this touching play, which ran off-Broadway in 2012, shows how impressively he\u2019s matured.<\/p>\n

Try as he may, however, he can\u2019t keep the audience \u2014 before it feels compassion \u2014 from wincing collectively at the seemingly grotesque main character.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the climax of \u201cThe Whale\u201d is so potent the opening night crowd, totally stunned, didn\u2019t applaud for several seconds.<\/p>\n

A thunderous tumult then rocked the place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Whale\u201d plays at the Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller Ave., Mill Valley, through Oct. 26. Performances Tuesdays and Thursdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Wednesdays, 7:30 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Matinees, Sundays, 1 or 2 p.m. Tickets: $10 to $58, subject to change. Information: (415) 388-5208 or marintheatre.org.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Woody’s [rating: 4.5] Charlie slowly has been committing suicide by food. Ounce by ounce. He\u2019s now somewhere between 550 and 600 pounds. Playwright Samuel D. Hunter, 33, just last month…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14631","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"