ESPIONAGE COMES TO GROUP THERAPY
There’s a pretty good reason why the world premiere of Greg Ostrin’s The Spy Who Went Into Rehab, onstage at Pacific Resident Theatre in Venice, has been extended. It’s a darned good farcical and absurdist comedy.
The studly, well-cast Satiar Pourvasei plays Cross. Simon Cross. He’s been dropped off at an unknown location after police picked him up, blackout drunk, for chasing a car at 120 miles per hour in his Aston Martin. He’s convinced he was chasing an assassin – but it may just have been an Uber driver. He awakens in a chair in a barren room, with Michael Franco‘s lighting casting jail-like shadows on his elegant white dress jacket and black tux pants, an ominous anonymous voice telling him he’s in for it (reminiscent of the wonderful late ’60s TV series, The Prisoner). I’ll never talk, Simon responds.
Satiar Pourvasei
Where am I, he asks the counselor as she starts the intake process that sounds more like an interrogation. He thinks he’s being held in a black-ops underground location. She thinks he’s delusional. But when she asks about his insurance, he finally realizes this ain’t just another secret agent caper. He’s in rehab.
He’s told to surrender his bow-tie phone, his suicide suspenders, his bullet-proof jacket and his exploding cufflinks. But giving up smoking and his 3-5 daily martinis hurts even more than having to wear the jogging suit he’s been provided. Before handing over the phone, he places a call to his boss at the spy agency, Z — recalling Dame Judith Dench’s M in the James Bond movies (at my performance, Dendrie Taylor stood in for Cyndy Fujikawa). He thinks she’ll get him out. But she tells him to buck up and get on with it.
Rachel Townsend, Satiar Pourvasei, Stuart W. Howard, Alondra Andrade
The plot line is clever, with unexpected twists and turns that recoil back around themselves. The characters represent different aspects of wokeness: Stella (Mariah Shirley, covering for Jill Renner) tells him he’s a multi-faceted addict — you name it, she’s got a label for it; Pixie (Alondra Andrade) has daddy issues and is non-binary, a concept far beyond anything Simon’s sexist worldview can comprehend; Sexy exotic dancer Yvonne (Rachel Townsend), who Simon mistakes for a hooker and would, if he could, seduce; and lastly, Gary (Stuart W. Howard), a timid gay man with restless leg syndrome who longs to be like Simon, but in a reverse turn, also appears as Simon’s arch-nemesis, Lazarus Rex.
The gist of the play’s message is that Simon’s shaken-not-stirred days of womanizing, drinking, gambling, killing, and anger issues are about to be tamed by his fellow, not-always-what-they-seem group therapy patients and counselor. In rehab, they will help him unbury the man beneath the superspy myth that he’s been inhabiting.
Alondra Andrade, Stuart W. Howard
How he gets there is amusing. At first resisting the idea of “sharing his feelings,” Simon adjusts to group therapy, even becoming a role model to the others, teaching Gary about his “tell” — a physical, verbal, or behavioral cue exhibited by a player in a game of cards — or instructing Yvonne and Pixie how to protect themselves by practicing how to break a dummy’s neck. He even helps Stella achieve a breakthrough.
Somehow Lazarus Rex tracks him down at rehab and their confrontation is epic, with Simon practicing the lessons he’s learned (“I hear you, I see you, what are you feeling”) in trying to make Lazarus open up. That won’t work till later in the play, when all the funny twists begin to mount, and increasingly hilarious acronyms for other agencies begin flying. To reveal them would spoil the play for you.
Stuart W. Howard, Satiar Pourvasei
Directed by Cyndy Fujikawa, The Spy Who Went Into Rehab is a fast-paced, 90-minute one-act with broad humor, solid acting, and an effective bare-bones stage. All of this is set into motion even before you take your seat by sound designer Jason Culp, whose vintage ’60s playlist includes Rosemary Clooney’s “Mambo Italiano”; Petula Clark’s “Downtown,” The Seekers’ “Georgy Girl” and the classic Johnny Rivers song “Secret Agent Man”. Bonus points for the original title song, sung by Ava King, in the style of Shirley Bassey’s Bond movie song hits. The only sound issue was when Simon’s back is to the audience during group meetings; in those few moments, he was inaudible.
Although it IS about toxic masculinity and isn’t subtle, the play is really a smart take on stereotypes and genres, ones which are easier to laugh at instead of being lectured.
photos by Phil Cass
The Spy Who Went Into Rehab
Pacific Resident Theatre, 703 Venice Boulevard in Venice
Fri & Sat at 8; Sun at 3
ends on August 25, 2024
for tickets ($35 – $45; student rush $12), call 310.822.8392 or visit PRT