Lions
While the Detroit Lions are riding high in their most successful NFL season, longtime devoted fan John “Spook” Waite (Matt McKenzie) is facing an all-time low in his life and career. With the factories in Detroit boarding up and blue-collar jobs drying up, Spook and his cohorts of private sports bar “The 10th Ward Club,” cheer the underdog, while realizing they, too, have become the underdogs in the national recession.
Vince Melocchi’s new play pulses on the beat of current times: the economic crisis, unemployment, and the tightening squeeze on working-class families. At the center of all of it is Spook, an avid Lions fan, a loyal husband and father, and until his recent layoff, a hard worker at local steel and nail manufacturing company. With the best of his years behind him, and fewer job opportunities before him, Spook is literally “spooked” into a sort of paralytic frenzy. On the verge of losing everything, Spook finds himself swept up in his beloved Lions winning streak, believing if they can win, maybe he can too.
Melocchi’s gritty, straight-shooting ensemble resonates with Midwestern city-folk charm, and strikes a resonating chord of empathy. Along with Spook, there is “Biscuit” (Haskell V. Anderson) an on-call undertaker moonlighting as a rapper, a reverend (Kim Estes), a bartender (Seth Margolies), saucy no-nonsense gal-pal, Mabel, (Gloria Charles) and a young dreamer (Alan Keith Caldwell) stuck bagging groceries at the local supermarket while planning a way out of the city. Their relationships are as familiar as they are complex. Through it all, it is football that brings them together, but it’s their unwavering support keeping them from coming apart. This is the uplifting spirit of Melocchi’s heartening characters and the overall tone of this timely play.
It is not without powerful social commentary, however, and no surprise then, that Melocchi’s play, along with its publication by Samuel French, has recently been submitted to the Pulitzer Committee. Simple and succinct, Melocchi’s language and sharp observations cut to the bone while maintaining a playful banter, avoiding the drama from becoming too dreary. Spook’s character and the play itself is an amalgam of “Death of a Salesman” and “The Iceman Cometh” but without the tragic end or bitter conclusion of these. In Spook, there is Willy Loman’s crushing failure at achieving the American Dream, but there is also Hickey’s bitter reflective energy that surges with bouts of angry tirades and hopelessness. Using flashbacks to a missed opportunity in Spook’s youth, sharpened now by regret, Melocchi taps into dramatized reminiscences, reminiscent of Miller’s play, while setting the main of the action in a dive bar haunted by regulars as those found in O’Neill’s waterfront saloon.
Although, the second act takes an overly sentimental turn in Spook’s phone call to his daughter, the totality of the play rises above melodrama and concludes if not on a hopeful note, then at the very least a guarded optimism with the down and out crew playing the lotto. The only one that plans to get out of the city is the young bagger whose very youth conveys a more promising future than his mentors have. When he asks Spook, whether he should take a chance and leave for TN, Spook answers, “Go on. Get out. We’ll still be here.” The grim truth is that while the others are stuck, they hope for a better year, a better season, and maybe one last winning streak. The Lions might have lost, but their team spirit remains.
Guillermo Cienfuegos directs this exceptional ensemble, choreographing splendid, reflexive emotional turns throughout. McKenzie delivers a strong, engaging performance as Spook, and taps into the emotional heartache and disappointment with moving sincerity.
“Lions” ultimately leaves one richer for having seen it, and considering today’s market, that’s an easy sell.
Due to popular demand and sold out performances “Lions’ re-opens for an extended run.
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Theater: Pacific Resident Theatre, 705 ½ Venice Blvd. Venice, 90291
Web Site: http://www.pacificresidenttheatre.com/
Tickets: 310-822-8392
Dates: through March 29 - Thurs 3/12 only, Fri, and Sat at 8pm - Sundays at 3pm