Hugging the Shoulder
In "Hugging the Shoulder," Derrick (Daniel Pawlowski) kidnaps his heroine addict brother, Jeremy (Kevin Patrick Murphy), driving into the sunset of sobriety in an effort to save him from his demons.
The unlikable Jeremy is resistant, of course, and is brutally agonizing to
watch as he insults his little brother throughout the play, sophomorically leaving us no choice but to surrender any type of empathy for Derrick.
That being said, Murphy takes Jeremy to a realistic level despite the many-faceted problems with his character. Pawlowski, however, has been given the role of a lifetime, showing instinctual reactions and solely holding the production together.
In the final 30 minutes, director Scott Brown finally lifts our spirits with a remarkably intense scene between Pawlowski and the divinely talented Kristen Hall (as "Christy," the third party of the triangular love affair).
On a grading scale (in three parts):
Performances: B+
Script: D-
Direction: C-
An additional note I must mention is the fact that there are no actors'
bios in the program. There is, in fact, a director's bio with 75 percent of the remainder of that same page taken up for the plot of the story. Here's a suggestion: let us watch the plot, and allow the actors a moment to show us who they are.
Written by: Jerrod Bogard
Directed by: Scott Brown
Cast: Kevin Patrick Murphy, Daniel Pawlowski, Kristen Hall
At The Complex - Hollywood
Until November 23rd