Boys
will be hobos
The Jocker
Written by Clint
Jefferies
Directed by Jeffery Corrick
Wings Theatre Company (http://www.wingstheatre.com)
Equity Showcase (Mon.,
Thu-Sat at 8pm; Sun at 3:30pm; through June 9)
Review by Adam Cooper
The world of
Clint Jefferies’ play, The Jocker, is quite an intriguing one. Taking place in the
unique setting of a hobo jungle, a shantytown among rail yards, this production
explores the vital relationships of suffering, detached men at the height of
the Great Depression.
The unglamorized life of a hobo is indeed highly scary and
stressful as characters live among the elements, struggling to get undesirable
day labor jobs, avoiding dangers such as getting mauled by trains or arrested
by railroad cops, and eking out an existence among others who are in the same
dire predicament. In this womanless, friendless, family-less world, the hobos
turn to each other for survival, sometimes forming emotional or erotic bonds,
but more often descending into destructive relationships and altercations.
Homework was done
such that the show presents an array of rituals of transient life: chatting and
singing around a fire, making food, looking for day jobs, dealing with dangers
from within and without, and engaging in both loving and hostile homoerotic
encounters. Even the idiosyncratic vernacular of this universe is catalogued in
almost list-like fashion during one dialogue exchange.
The production
does appear to invoke a certain other play about vaudevillian hobo-like
personages that relies heavily on character interactions (including a character
named Lucky) and has but a single spare tree as its main set piece. However,
unlike that Beckettian masterpiece with transients
stuck forever waiting for their needs to be satiated, this show explores how
such men turn to each other for solace, companionship, love, and meaning.
Despite
energetic efforts to create a window into this largely unknown world, the
production falls short of realizing the ambiance of the 1930s, the Great
Depression, or even a believable portrait of hobo life. Hampered by contrived,
weak plotting; heavily talky, flat dialogue; and misplaced emphasis on beefcake
and sexual situations, this production proffers a skewed vision that never
rises to its intended dramatic heights.
While the
production strives to portray the emotional dependency created by such
circumstances between lost men, it did not truly succeed in creating fully
defined characters working within complex relationships. For example, the
tyrannical, dominant jocker Biloxi Billy (Stephen Cabral) comes across as a
stereotypically sadistic carnival barker. Conversely, the youthful punk Nat (Nick Mathews) is conveyed too thinly as
a naïve, victimized, angst-ridden waif, even with his manufactured journey
toward maturation as nurturing figure to the wounded man-child ‘Bama (Jason Alan
Griffin). It is odd that the play is entitled The Jocker since only Biloxi Billy really
fits that sadomasochistic description and his character is somewhat peripheral
and among the least interesting.
Jeffery Corrick’s flawed direction pushes the overly erotic
elements and the sensational and strident aspects of the show, while not
nurturing enough dramatic narrative flow and more richly realized
characterizations. Perhaps the strongest performance is rendered in Stephen Tyrone Williams’ Lucky, a
pivotal supporting role who quietly but menacingly exposes racial, erotic, and
violent aspects of this animal-like existence.
William Ward’s set design includes the requisite hobo
props like barrels, boxes, rocks, and rubble cast against a barren, fenced-in
landscape; yet the pieces did not rise to signify more than a cursory
suggestion of time and place. With an emphasis on cute suspenders and overalls,
L. J. Kleeman’s costume design contributes more
to the idealization, caricature, and sexiness of the production that hold it
back from being a more potent and legitimate treatment of its subject matter.
Also featuring Michael Lazar, David Tacheny, and James Bullard.
Writing: 1
Directing: 0
Acting: 1
Set: 1
Costumes: 1
Lighting/Sound:
0
Copyright 2007
Adam Cooper
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