My overall impression
Never has ‘here’ meant so much. I am going to be intentionally vague. The ribcages ‘here’ are like ‘paper in my hands.’ As ‘Vicious’ prepares us, this isn’t going to be a laundry list of bad therapist stories. Ben Moroski’s ‘This Vicious Minute’ is quiet and devastating. There are no histrionics here, no chewing scenery, no false moves. This guy is honest in the telling, the playing and the living. It’s on and in his skin.
As brutally handsome as he has been brutal to himself, Ben’s unflinching gaze targets us but through the lens of his hard won honesty. No, really. He’s a football player, a jock. The ladies like him, he gets erections at the drop of a dime—or blade. The fact that Ben is here onstage is a very hard won battle. I won’t give the story away but anyone who has ever had an addiction or a complusion, or known someone who has, will see themselves in this work. Be prepared to have your throat clench when he mirrors some aspect of yourself back as he slips into the pontificating pastor, the ladies in group or his mom finding him with ‘ropes of blood’ on his legs.
Somewhere along the way, Moroski got a glimpse of some authentic self in a hell of self-harm and is now sharing that with us. The honesty and lack of clever psycho-babble is gut-bustingly funny at times but caused this audience member to wince more than once. If Moroski weren’t such a good actor, the whole thing would be impossible. We would walk out angry and exploited. ‘Here’ the scars are stunningly beautiful in their misshapen untterly organic attempt to reconnect the cells cut one from the other. We are rooting for this character, this jerk kid who just can’t see what a gift he is to the rest of us. But, we sure leave the theatre soaring for this guy and keeping our fingers crossed. For 75 minutes, you have the opportunity to stop in and see for yourself. There are several good productions at the Fringe to choose from, but this was the best I saw.