Mike Mariano

Some critics find it unbearable that Sarah Ruhl is now an official “genius playwright”. They don’t like Ruhl’s output so far, and her lofty status means her plays never have to get any better. And since Ruhl is still young, these veteran critics are now condemned to endure her soft-focus magical realism for the rest of their natural lives.

Life’s too short for bad playwriting! But can anyone really accuse Ruhl of stagnation? Eurydice came before her breakthrough The Clean House, which was concurrent with her much more ambitious Passion Play, a Cycle at Arena Stage in 2005. I don’t know much about her current Dead Man’s Cell Phone, but it just finished up a sell-out, extended run at Woolly Mammoth. I think the future looks bright.

I can’t say the same for my personal unbearable playwright: Adam Rapp. I don’t find any redeeming element in his repugnant plays, yet they keep coming to greater and greater acclaim. His last major outing, Essential Self-Defense, was panned by Martin Denton but praised by everyone else, including Marian Seldes!

Denton’s review really chilled me. It seems Rapp plays “the 9/11 card” in Essential Self-Defense. Heather Goldenhersh asks, “What’s my motivation?” Rapp responds: “9/11.” It’s George W. Bush as Lee Strasberg and it’s unacceptable.

Just as loathsome was Rapp’s use of the “AIDS Revenge Plot” in the preposterously Pulitzer-nominated Red Light Winter. Since when are decades-old, right-wing urban legends acceptable narratives for major theatre works? I really can’t take Adam Rapp seriously because of his ignorant and careless plotting of Red Light Winter.

Nevertheless, Rapp will be back in the fall with American Sligo at Rattlestick Theater. Notice that Rattlestick’s publicity materials are on a first-name-basis with their exclusively white male playwrights.

I don’t see anything immediately objectionable about American Sligo or its professional wrestling-slash-kitchen sink drama plot. Maybe Rapp won’t stagnate after all.

I don’t know. Instead of holding out hope, I’ll ask you all the question: what offensive, cliched trope will Rapp throw into Sligo as an important part of the plot? Sligo has a son who died from mixing Pop Rocks and Coke? Sligo’s wrestling career is outsourced to India? Sligo hires a Chinese prostitute and gets SARS? (Not likely; it’s an all-white cast.)

There’s so much disappointment to look forward to. I still believe in Sarah Ruhl. Rapp is the one I fear I’ll be tormented by for the rest of my natural life.

Like tens of thousands of Americans, I spent Monday night watching two hours and forty-five minutes of robots!

Wait, not those robots. I saw Mac Rogers and his Universal Robots!

Mac’s new play (which he generously invited me to) is a loose adaptation of Karel Capek’s R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) that mixes Capek, his contemporaries, and real-life Twentieth Century history into the narrative. Mac is at the top of his game here; the play deftly handles issues of faith and prayer, robot ethics, and the first stirrings of the second World War. Hitler’s Germany essentially killed the real life Capek. Mac’s play has robots fighting Nazis!

This is a truly epic play performed by a dedicated, wonderful cast. Mac’s previous play Hail Satan (soon to return at the Fringe Festival in August) had a truly stunning close to its first act, changing all expectations for the second. Universal Robots has a multitude of these moments, growing the end of the human race out of breezy talk in a small Prague bar. It works so, so well. I’m really glad I saw it.

Note: Mac’s Universal Robots is not to be confused with a live radio presentation by the same name (and some of the same concepts), currently at Ontological-Hysteric. It is also not to be confused with the Universal Robot Band, creators of one of my favorite disco songs, “Barely Breaking Even.” I’ve got to get some for myself.

Second Stage Theatre made the mistake of handing out gel bracelets prior to their Monday performance of Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice. (Verdict: too Yalie!)

Why was it a mistake? Is it wrong to support “Living American Playwrights”?

No. It was wrong to give me the opportunity to twist and snap a piece of plastic against my wrist for ninety minutes. I’m such a child!

Let’s hope they don’t leave any bubble wrap near my seat during Coast of Utopia….