Edinburgh Fringe 2014
The Dirty Talk
Sober Stag Productions
Genre: Drama
Venue: C Venue 352, Adam House on Chambers Street
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Two twenty-something men, who are trapped in a hunting cabin in New Jersey, USA during a storm, discuss love in modern times.
Review
The Dirty Talk was written by Michael Puzzo and directed by Jimmy Walters. The action of begins when a soaking wet Mitch enters raging and violently destroys the umbrella that failed to protect him from the pouring rain. With this entrance I anticipated that I was in for a fast paced, action filled afternoon in the theater. This was not the case. Instead, I experienced Mitch and Lino alternating between sensitive discussion about the heartbreak of failed relationships and Lino, patiently enduring to Mitch’s homophobic rants.
Mitch is trying to re-cooperate from a broken marriage. Lino is a lonely, soft-spoken underachiever who is searching for an emotional connection. During the course of the play we learn that Lino and Mitch met in an online chat room. In their chats, Lino pretended to be a woman and Mitch described lascivious positions that they could partake in. Mitch’s online name is “Pitiful.” In reading this, Lino realized that Mitch needs to talk to someone and visits him in the rustic cabin. In this realistic drama Lino is so desperate to make a connection that he puts himself in harms way to patiently spend the wet, rainy afternoon listening intently to Mitch sort out why his marriage failed.
The script is a witty dialogue that portrays the sensitive emotional essence of men in relationships. The set, designed by David Harvey, was surprisingly elaborate. A mounted head of a stag hung over a large bed dominates the physical space.
Although there were some distractions in the I was able to become engaged in the storytelling presented by Michael Puzzo. I recommend this tight presentation of male bonding.
