MARY-ARRCHIE BLOG

Watching Glasgow-bred playwright Douglas Maxwell’s quietly hypnotic and poetic drama “Our Bad Magnet,” I kept thinking about that unique series of “Seven Up!” documentaries that, beginning in 1964, captured the thoughts and social situations of a cross-section of British children at the age of 7, and then tracked their destinies at various points over the ensuing decades.

Maxwell’s play, which debuted in 2000 and is receiving a powerfully acted U.S. premiere at Mary-Arrchie Theatre, is fictional. And it looks at a smaller sample — just four schoolboys in the small seacoast town of Girvan, Scotland, who are verbally sharp 9-year-olds in 1981, who are 19 and part of the same rock band in 1991, and who, by 2001, are in radically different situations. Yet the essential notion is the same: that individual character and talent are established quite early in life, and that the emotional scars of childhood and adolescence are deep and abiding and often irrevocable.

At 9, Alan (John Wilson) bears the nickname “Fatty” and is obsessed with coining an original word that might get included in a book. Paul (Layne Manzer) already has a tendency to be sardonically dismissive. Fraser (Dan Behrendt) is sensitive and literate and is the first to befriend Gordon (Kevin V. Smith), the strange, depressed boy with a troubled home life who is known by the wholly ironic nickname of “Giggles,” and who possesses a rare gift for spinning stories, including the one about emotional connection (and the lack of it) that is the source of the play’s title.

By 19, a certain sexual competition has developed among the boys. And while Paul is banking on their garage band to be his ticket out of Girvan, he thinks Giggles — whose deeply alienated songs and mindset are far more prone to the heavy metal/punk style than the rest — is out of sync. In fact, he wants to dump him.

By the time three of the four men agree to meet for a reunion of sorts in 2001, there is much tension and bad blood among them. There is something sad about the nerdy Alan, who still lives in Girvan, is married, works as an engineer and is an enthusiastic member of a club devoted to reenactments of viking life. Paul is a successful but callow lawyer living in London. And the smart and gifted Fraser is clearly damaged — unemployed and living with his parents. As for Giggles, he might or might not be dead. Each of the three men have different interpretations of the truth, too, particularly when it comes to Giggles.

Under the impeccable direction of Carlo Lorenzo Garcia, the superb actors morph easily through their three stages of development and use Maxwell’s mix of real and hothouse language and goth imagination to maximum effect. This gifted ensemble also makes sure the play’s modern-day Grimm fairy tale quality haunts you long after you’ve left the theater.

Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times

Source: http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/weiss/1348935,CST-FTR-Weiss25.article

It’s official! Mary-Arrchie Theatre Co. will be extending the Jeff Recommended US Premiere of Our Bad Magnet at Angel Island, 735 W. Sheridan .

The final dates for 2008 will be December 18^th – 22^nd.

The extension will begin January 2^nd and run through January 18^th, 2009.

There will be no show on January 8^th

Performances are Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 7 p.m. Tickets are $18 on Thursday and Sunday, $20 on Friday, and $22 on Saturday. We will close on Sunday, January 18^th, 2009. There is parking available in the Mobil Gas Station across from the theater at a fee determined by Mobil Gas. For more info rmation and reservations call (773) 871-0442 or visit: www.maryarrchie.com.

Press snippets:

“well-cast American premiere…features some breathtaking moments…one of the most effective and surprising endings I’ve seen in a while…” - Chicago Tribune

“For anyone who wants to experience joy, sadness, and the potential to be moved to tears in their holiday theater-going experience, don’t miss Our Bad Magnet.” -Edge Chicago

“Maxwell’s play is rich, moving, funny and real, and well served by Carlo Lorenzo Garcia’s direction, which keeps the right balance of tension and humor. All four actors are excellent” -Centerstage Chicago (Must See Show)

“Giggles’s stories are believably childlike, funny and touching.” -Chicago Reader

“drama’s U.S. premiere is helped by Garcia’s note-perfect cast” -Time Out Chicago

“the amorphous ending is a thing of almost transcendental beauty, a surreal and unknowable benediction from some vast, benevolent god.” -Windy City Chicago

“This cliques with me” – CheekyChicago.com

“Recommended” by New City , ChicagoCritic.com, and Steadstyle Chicago

FOR RESERVATIONS AND INFORMATION CALL (773) 871-0442

VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT www.maryarrchie.com

Our Bad Magnet
by Blythe Landry
EDGE Contributor
Wednesday Dec 10, 2008

Our Bad Magnet at Mary-Archie Theater Co. is, to say the least, a breath of fresh air… a snowfall of flower petals (go see the show and you will get that reference)… a tear down one’s cheek.

Scottish writer Douglas Maxwell, along with a gifted director and terrific actors within Mary-Archie Company and without, bring their audience winningly into the lives of three male friends at varying times in their lives.

The play offers relational excerpts of these three boys/men (depending upon what scene you are watching) and their sometimes magical, sometimes despondent relationships with both themselves and a bizarre “fourth” member of their group.

The “friends,” the only four characters in Bad Magnet, are sharing with their audience varying moments in the lives of their relationships with one another, as well as the tremendous impact that an occasional off-putting comrade of theirs named “Giggles” has on both the connections and divisions between them.

This story (as well as the numerous “stories within the story”) is/are about relationships, finding oneself amidst connectedness with others (whether they be real or make-believe), and the reality that some of us have to create magical worlds in order to avoid the real-life ones that are simply intolerable.

It details the relaationship between three 9-year-olds and a troubled, gifted child - an outsider to their relationship - who is endeared with spinning fables and fairy tales. As they age, the three boys attempt to decypher what became of their fourth friend, who has disappeared (or died) under mysterious circumstances.

In only 95 minutes, and with one intermission, Maxwell, Carlo Lorenzo Garcia (Director), Dan Behrendt (Fraser), Layne Manzer (Paul), Kevin V. Smith (Giggles) and John Wilson (Alan) impart a true sense of the holiday spirit - that which encompasses laughter, joy, grief, hope, confusion and even spirituality, without needing to have the crutch of a story that speaks, specifically, about the holiday season.

For anyone who wants to experience joy, sadness, and the potential to be moved to tears in their holiday theater-going experience, don’t miss Our Bad Magnet.

Source: http://www.edgechicago.com

this week’s feature

Our Bad Magnet

This Cliques With Me
735 W. Sheridan Rd., Chicago | 773.871.0442
Mary-Arrchie Theatre | www.maryarrchie.com

Childhood bonds can define us, give us grounding as we grow old, remind us of who we always wanted to be and provide stark contrast to who we have become. In Douglass Maxwell’s astute and wrenching Our Bad Magnet, four childhood friends return home again to find that the boys they once were have been lost forever.

New boy, Giggles (the spellbinding Kevin V. Smith), finds an unlikely friendship with a charismatic group of friends: the roly poly Alan (John Wilson), the ever-plotting Paul (Layne Manzer) and the group leader, Frazer (Dan Behrendt). Even though Giggles never smiles, he has a brilliant knack for storytelling, and the boys find camaraderie and solace within his fantastical tales. As time passes and the safety of childhood begins to recede, the boys cling to fantasy in order to hold themselves together; they escape into dreams of fame, tenuous relationships and the pursuit of wealth at any cost. Then, adolescent tragedy sends each one on an unexpected path, shaping who it is that they become.

The story is not perfect - a few plot points seem unnecessary and the central argument in the second half is unclear for quite a while, but these minor problems are rendered moot by a group of actors so skilled that you come to love each character despite (or because of) his shortcomings. John Wilson as the lighthearted and loveable Alan and Kevin V. Smith as the brooding, brilliant Giggles were especially radiant.

First time director, Carlo Lorenzo Garcia, handles the material well and adds beautiful flourishes throughout. His staging works on a variety of levels, and it is no coincidence that the set is an idyllic Scottish field that lays precariously close to a deadly cliff.

-Erica Bethe, CheekyChicago.com

Source: http://cheekychicago.com/DramaReview.aspx?did=da9a6d15-517e-4673-ad7b-7f43dbd20da6

Mary Arrchie Theatre long ago perfected its singular style of rough and ready testosterone-fueled angst. Climb the steep stairs to the theater’s s marvelously idiosyncratic postage stamp space, and you’ll inevitably find a world of haunting, hunted, angry young men whose bodies are grown but whose minds are rooted in an angry, destructive world, trapped in an awful limbo between abusive childhood and isolated adult. 
   With Our Bad Magnet, Mary Arrchie’s signature world of corrosive emotion and muscular action blooms in Douglas Maxwell’s engrossing drama. Maxwell has surely penned one of the worst titles in the canon of contemporary theater with Our Bad Magnet, but as directed by Carlo Lorenzo Garcia, the piece immerses you in a fascinating world of tormented men with more bear-in-a-china shop, self-loathing energy than self-preservation skills.    

 The narrative is rich with tantalizing ambiguity. This could be a ghost story. Or, it could be the tale of brilliant escape from both a toxic family and a dead-end town.Like the chasm beyond the looming Scottish cliffs where much of the action takes place, you can’t quite see where “Our Bad Magnet” goes beyond what is explicitly spelled for you. But rather than being a source of frustration, the amorphous ending is a thing of almost transcendental beauty, a surreal and unknowable benediction from some vast, benevolent god. 
   As for what we do know, that’s a tale told with nuance and richness. Set in small-town Girvan, Scotland in 1981, 1991 and 2001, the piece begins with 9-year-old best friends Fraser (Dan Behrendt) Paul (Layne Manzer, a dead ringer for James McAvoy) and Alan (John Wilson), playing together after school on a bluff that overlooks a swath of wild and rocky coastline. Enter Giggles, a clearly troubled new boy. He’s thin to the point of emaciation and - unless he’s weaving one of his many elaborate and a wonderful stories – almost as silent as a stone. As the boys act out the adventures of lonesome kings and realms of gold, details of Giggles’ devastating home life emerge. What happens to Giggles is the stuff of psychological thrillers. 
   Spanning 30 years – from 9 to 29 – Behrendt, Manzer and Wilson are terrific. As Frasier, the one most deeply damaged by Giggles’ , Behrendt is a lanky knot of inner pain. Wilson is also excellent as a seemingly happy family man whose escape into a pointless avocation belies his contented, jolly exterior. And as Paul, Manzer is wounded, wounding Peter Pan whose solitary, despondent emotional life will surely lead to multiple heartbreaks. 
   Joe Court’s sound design is the nuanced, fifth character here. An evocative pastiche of Celtic pop, ominous, futuristic clinking and clanking and the wild call of a wind-swept sea , it helps create an atmosphere where four boys are dwarfed by the rugged, awesome powers of fate and nature. 
 

Photos by Kirstie Shanley
Top:  Kevin V. Smith (from left), John Wilson, Layne Manzer, Daniel Behrendt):
Bottom: Daniel Behrendt (from left) , John Wilson, Layne Manzer

Catey Sullivan - Windy City Times / Chicago Theatre Examiner

Speaking of tortured souls, meet Giggles, the ironically named 9-year-old Scottish boy whose fantastical allegories and horrific history live on in the minds of his three schoolmates long after Giggles is gone. Douglas Maxwell’s sharp dialogue gets the restlessness of small-town teen life just right, and Carlo Lorenzo Garcia’s well-cast American premiere for Mary-Arrchie Theatre Co. features some breathtaking moments.

But Maxwell’s script feels cobbled together at points. Giggles’ stories are enacted onstage, and while nowhere near as disturbing as those in Martin McDonagh’s “The Pillowman,” they contain the self-consciousness of the grown playwright’s voice, not that of Kevin V. Smith’s pinched and tormented Giggles. The story moves back and forth in time between 1981, 1991, and 2001. This allows the three actors playing Giggles’ mates to add and subtract darker shadings from their characters consistent with the time frame. Dan Behrendt as Fraser, the one left most undone by Giggles’ fate, is particularly effective across the span of years, but John Wilson’s socially clumsy Alan and Layne Manzer’s slick Paul also deliver detailed and truthful performances.

But too many subplots, bordering on the banal, take over Maxwell’s story, which is at its best when it focuses on the strange childhood dynamic that allows kids to hang around with children who fascinate them, but who they don’t necessarily like or understand. There’s enough guilt in that scenario that the side issues of adultery and paralyzing slackerdom distract, rather than enhance the story. But the show also has one of the most effective and surprising endings I’ve seen in a while, which helps redeem some of Maxwell’s less-illuminating insights into adult disappointments.

By Kerry Reid

Special To The Tribune
December 5, 2008

Source: http://chicago.metromix.com/theater/article/pageant-a-stellar-cult/814479/content

RECOMMENDED

A humane and droll play about memory and loss, examining four quintessential adolescent-boy archetypes in a small town in Scotland. The story meanders between their 1980s boyhood and adult years in fleetingly short scenes that are sometimes rich with the transient nature of memory and sometimes just a bit underbaked. The plot is formulaic enough, with familiar characters challenging one another about a mysterious tragedy in the past and their own hypocrisies, and when the final revelations come as the boys, now grown men, betray one another angrily, one feels a slipping of the real genius of this show, which is watching all four delicately controlled actors maneuver with remarkable skill in portraying the characters from childhood to adulthood, with an especially nuanced performance from Dan Behrendt as the incorruptible protagonist. Director Carlo Lorenzo Garcia understands that their town is another silent character, and the presence of Girvan, Scotland hangs heavily over the play, where the show’s aesthetic of stylized cliffs, tiny school chairs, and an eighties indie rock soundtrack anchors the story and keeps it from drifting too far into the world of stereotype. (Monica Westin)

Mary Arrchie Theatre’s production plays at Angel Island, 731 W. Sheridan, 773-871-0442. Through December 21.

Source: http://newcitystage.com/2008/12/01/review-our-bad-magnet-mary-arrchie-theatre/