ME NO LIKE

Brandon Baruch’s new play answers the question, What if a tedious dipshit got cloned? Failed actor and drunken doofus Tuck (Benjamin Durham) sponges off his girlfriend Gemma (Lizzie Adelman) until the result of a forgotten sperm donation, also named Tuck (Sto Strauss), knocks at their door. Afterward, the doofus mooches off both his girlfriend and his clone, then goes to rehab, then learns a lesson. Or something. A play that spends over a half hour describing familiar territory with unfunny dialogue (“You just sit around with your Playstation!” “It’s an X-Box!”) is not to be forgiven for taking the next hour to wander from unenlightening episode (unreliable guy remains unreliable) to unenlightening episode (long-suffering girlfriend continues to suffer).

The introduction of the third character adds little to the story, and contradicts the obvious thematic purpose of a clone, since the second Tuck is not much like the first. There’s a brief interlude of a promising idea, when the doofus seduces his own clone; but no capital is invested, and no return drawn.   Mr. Baruch has written the clone as a naïf, easily taken advantage of and not very smart; Mr. Strauss plays him big, with intelligence and comic timing, which is more than Mr. Durham is able to drag from a big part with small reward.   Upstaged by her bangs, and similarly timing-challenged, Ms. Adelman plays Gemma as a cutesy nasal cartoon version of humanity, which works on a plane with Mr. Strauss’s characterization but not with Mr. Durham’s naturalism. Marc Warzecha’s direction abets this actors-in-different-plays, play-that-goes-nowhere pointlessness.

Me Love Me
part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival
Open Fist Theatre
ends on June 29, 2013
for tickets, visit Hollywood Fringe