Right spin on ' Not a Game for Boys'
In "Not a Game for Boys," Simon Block's darkly funny, deeply perceptive 1995 comedy about identity and obsession set in the cut-throat world of amateur table tennis, the competitors don't confine their game-playing to the ping-pong table.
These "boys" play games with everyone: each other, the unseen women in their lives and themselves. The problem arises when one of them stops playing.
A Red Orchid Theatre's U.S. premiere marks the latest examination of deeply flawed and utterly compelling men in crisis to grace a Chicago stage this season. Thanks Robin Witt's exacting, unsentimental direction and the fiery, pitch-perfect acting from Dan Rivkin, Nigel Patterson and Bob Turton, this taut little tale ranks among the very best.
Like his characters, Block's humor has a hard edge and wit to spare. Describing the collapse of fellow player Fat Derrick in the middle of a match, Rivkin's Oscar deadpans: "The breeze as he went down rustled my Evening Standard" (a reference to the London newspaper). Later the same character refers to the man's body being dragged aside so that the match could continue, "his carcass being an obstacle to uninterrupted play."
Derrick's death has a profound effect on the philosophical Oscar (a terrific performance by Rivkin, whose perpetual scowl is tinged with resignation and despair), a member of a struggling table tennis team made up of London cab drivers. Oscar has come from the funeral to the nondescript community center where he and his teammates are preparing for a crucial match that will determine whether they remain among the elite in Division One or are relegated to Division Two, "the last resting place for the athletically illiterate." He's joined by team captain Eric (fine work by Patterson), whose passion for ping-pong makes him neglect his family, including his long-suffering wife who cares for Eric's senile mother so he can indulge his hobby.
Last to arrive is their ace Tony (a wide-eyed, nicely manic Turton), an impulsive, slightly dim bloke who shows up for the match sporting a broken nose which may be the result of the latest row with his live-in girlfriend.
This child's game provides each man a means of escape. For the unmarried Oscar, who has taken stock of his life and found it wanting, it's a way to connect with other people. For the obsessed Eric, who dresses up his selfishness in the guise of team loyalty and whose greatest flaw is his failure to take his own advice, it's the 45 minutes of the week he can claim as his own. And for immature Tony, whose girlfriend has tried to make a man of him, it's a way to remain a child.
There's an uneasy undercurrent to the alliance between the men. That tension, subtly conveyed by Witt's trio, may have something to do with the fact that each craves what the other has. Tony and Eric envy Oscar's freedom while Oscar craves their domesticity. When Oscar decides to make a change, it threatens not just the team, but their friendship as well.
Part of the reason "Not a Game for Boys" works as well as it does has to do with the satisfying way Block confounds expectations. You suspect the play will end a certain way. But if Block's nicely ambivalent drama -- which recalls Neil LaBute (in its expression of vitriol) and David Mamet (in its explosion of violence) -- doesn't deliver exactly what you expect, it does deliver.
"Not a Game for Boys"
3½ stars
Location: A Red Orchid Theatre, 1531 N. Wells St., Chicago
Times: 8 p.m. Thursdays to Saturdays; 7 p.m. Sundays through June 22
Running Time: About 1 hour, 45 minutes with intermission
Tickets: $20, $25
Parking: Paid lots nearby, limited street parking
Box office: (312) 943-8722 or aredorchidteatre.org
Rating: For adults, contains strong language, violence