Imagine David Mamet meeting Quentin Tarantino and Steely Dan in “The Twilight Zone.” That’s one way to look at Martin McDonagh’s comically lurid A Behanding in Spokane, Cygnet Theatre’s 2012 opener in Old Town. The one-act story of an armed but one-handed man named Carmichael (Jeffrey Jones in a role played on Broadway by Christopher Walken, which should tell you something about the character right there) seeking his lost forelimb is a wild ride. It’s complicated by two hapless double-crossers (Vimel, Kelly Iversen) and a wacked-out hotel receptionist (Mike Sears) and unfolds with profanities spewed at Gatling-gun speed, faux-gory sight gags and trademark McDonagh (The Beauty Queen of Leenane, In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths) twists and turns. It doesn’t amount to much of anything, but director Lisa Berger never allows the action to flag.
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AuthorDavid L. Coddon is a Southern California theater critic. Archives
October 2024
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