"Beast"

“Beast”
By Michael Weller at the New York Theater Workshop, is a very strange, disconcerting, extremely disturbing, play. In fact its subtitle is ‘A Fever Dream in Six Scenes’ and that’s what it feels like. (No I didn’t fall asleep, but at times I was drifting.) Two army buddies just back from the war in Iraq and not only badly maimed, (together they one right arm and one left arm) but also severely disfigured, travel around the country on some quest to make sense of the America they were fighting for. The fact that one of them is probably dead doesn’t seem to stop them from getting into some unusual situations, like an encounter with two blind prostitutes or an epiphany at the base of Mt. Rushmore where the stone heads of the presidents talk to them. This all leads to a very funny climax in Crawford, Texas and a private meeting (against his will) with GW.

I can’t say I liked this much, but given what I have seen recently at NYTW, at least it’s a play worth seeing and talking about. Logan Marshall-Grant as one of the physically maimed vets was almost unrecognizable from the last time I saw him in Kevin Kline’s version “King Lear” and Dan Butlar was priceless as our Head Cheerleader in Chief.