A THRILLER THAT TAKES
A WHILE TO FLUSH OUT

A perfectly matched cast and Andrew Block’s resourceful
staging eventually ignite Tom Kelly’s pitch-black thriller,
but the promised comedy rarely surfaces

Kate Miller, Dan Patrick Brady

No, The Bathroom Attendant doesn’t take place in a public bathroom. The title refers to how far into indigence its protagonist has fallen—a condition made all the more desperate by the fact that his job as a bathroom attendant is only part-time. Billed as a “dark comic thriller,” Tom Kelly’s new play, which opened last night at the Bank Street Theater (the small proscenium space affiliated with HB Studio), delivers on only two-thirds of that description. Dark? Absolutely. Thriller? By the end of Act I and throughout Act II, most definitely. Comic? Not really. The laughs are few and far between.

Evan Klein, Kate Miller, Jon Krupp, Dan Patrick Brady

If by “comic” Kelly and director Andrew Block are aiming for the black comedy of Martin McDonagh (The Lieutenant of Inishmore and many others), they don’t quite hit the mark. The darkness, however, couldn’t get much bleaker: sex trafficking, blackmail, fecal smearing, torture, murder and the abuse of an underage girl. I’m not even convinced McDonagh could wring many laughs from that grim assortment of ingredients.

Mari Blake

Set in a small town on the outskirts of Las Vegas in August 2018, the play opens with an agonizing monologue from Bambi (Mari Blake), a teenage girl who has been sexually trafficked and is recovering from a brutal attack by a celebrity athlete. The violent act was recorded by a passerby, Connor (Evan Klein), who, while visiting an old family friend, Johnny (Dan Patrick Brady), a former boxer, teams up with him and his landlord, Tina (Kate Miller), to blackmail the athlete for half a million dollars. The remaining cast member is Marcus (Jon Krupp), the athlete’s business representative, who appears in Act II thinking he’s there to resolve the issue.

Evan Klein, Dan Patrick Brady, Kate Miller

The star of the production is Block’s casting. Every role seems as though it were written specifically for the actor playing it. Most notably, Brady embodies a down-and-out, washed-up has-been, a once-great boxer reduced to the remnants of his former glory. It’s not an easy combination for an actor to convey, but Brady captures this hard-knock survivor without saying a word. Miller comes across as one of the most trained actors in the company, with stage presence, comic timing and projection fitting for a larger theater, though perhaps not fully matching her more camera-ready fellow actors. Klein’s first impression of innocence and naïveté doesn’t remain long, culminating in one of the more shocking moments to occur onstage. Altogether, the characters’ struggles seem perfectly suited to the actors embodying them, making for electrifying performances.

Kate Miller, Evan Klein, Dan Patrick Brady

Block also excels at staging the play in a very small space, making inventive use of areas beyond the gritty studio apartment, including the audience aisle. Don’t sit too close unless you don’t mind twisting around to catch a scene happening behind you.

The apparent shoestring, poor-man’s-theater budget fits perfectly with this rough-and-tumble play. It’s a shame, then, that the sound system couldn’t be of this century. The sound quality at the performance I attended was so poor that it almost worked against the intense, stirring moments it was meant to punctuate. Fortunately, Tony Lepore’s lighting design and music composition fare much better, while Scott Fetterman’s production design effectively captures the bleak, down-and-out world of Johnny’s rock-bottom hideout.

Evan Klein, Dan Patrick Brady, Kate Miller, Jon Krupp

It takes a while for the play to rev up. The first act is burdened with exposition that the playwright seems convinced we must hear before allowing the drama to move forward. But once The Bathroom Attendant gets past the spoon-feeding of backstory, it takes off—and doesn’t let up all the way to the end.

If you’re in the mood for a dark, hetero-toxic thriller, The Bathroom Attendant may just be for you. And the exceptionally friendly front-of-house staff is among the warmest you’ll find in New York.

Kate Miller

✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

photos by Scott Fetterman

The Bathroom Attendant
SparkPlug Productions
124 Bank Street Theater, 124 Bank Street in New York City
Tue–Sat at 7:30; Sun at 3
ends on August 30, 2026
for tickets ($35), visit SparkPlug Productions

✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

Gregory Fletcher is a writer and director. His publishing credits include a craft book on playwriting entitled Shorts and Briefs, as well as a collection entitled A Playwright’s Dozen: 13 short plays. Other publishing includes two YA novels (Other People’s Crazy, and Other People’s Drama), 2 novellas in the series Inclusive Bedtime Stories, 2 short stories in The Night Bazaar series, and five essays. Website, Facebook, Instagram.