My overall impression
The Wake – review by Pauline Adamek. *This review first appeared on www.ArtsBeatLA.com *
At the beginning of his one-person play The Wake, Ben Moroski — posing as ‘Pete Harrisburg’ — rushes in, introduces himself with a self-deprecating “I’m the asshole doing this play,” and then hands audience members flyers for this show. Moroski thus places an important distance between him — the writer and performer — and the character’s tale that unfolds.
A hyperactive guy in a black suit and thin tie with slicked-back hair, Pete gives us a bit of a prologue to ‘the play’ by illustrating his recent backstory and explaining how an actor’s workshop has helped him get through “the heavy shit.”
So at first, we are invited to attend the ‘wake’ of a dead relationship. Bitter and hostile, Pete was dumped a couple of months ago by Tallie and is still not over it. Gesticulating voluptuously, the play’s first hilarious line is “Her ass…” Pete then proceeds with a rancid ode on the bitch who left him, and his sexually explicit and funny text is full of unexpected metaphors and poetic rhythms. But this wake soon gains a new meaning as Pete’s story grows darker.
Thematically, The Wake is redolent of Robert Browning’s creepy and disturbing 1836 poem Porphyria’s Lover — a reference that Moroski says was unknown to him — yet both works are drenched in insanity. You keep waiting for a shoe to drop, and when it does, it’s dazzling.
Directed by Nick Massouh, Moroski’s writing is searingly brilliant and his performance is intense, gripping us in the palm of his hand for the hour’s duration. Intense, profane, hilarious and tragic, The Wake is a tour-de-force show that charges ahead at a breakneck speed.
