MARY-ARRCHIE BLOG

How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found - Nov 23, 2009
The subject on the this week’s Talk Theatre In Chicago podcast is Mary Arrchie Theatre’s production of How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found. Anne Nicholson Weber talks with Director Richard Cotovsky and actors Carlo Lorenzo Garcia and Kevin Stark. View the show details>>

http://www.theatreinchicago.com/talk/

THEATRE MON NOV 16 2009

It’s (Not) Better to Disappear Than to Fade Away

Fin Kennedy came up with the idea forHow to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found after stumbling across the UK missing persons website, which features a gallery of faces with brief descriptions of what they were last seen doing. Curious, he contacted the people behind the site, and they told him that most of these cases are not the products of abductions or murders. Instead, most of these people wanted to disappear. They wanted to start over. When he asked what sorts of people do this, they told him that a lot of them are young professionals–usually men in their late twenties, early thirties, with good jobs. Sure, maybe a little depressed, but they seemed to live relatively charmed lives. Kennedy based the protagonist of his play on this model. Charlie, (played by Carlo Lorenzo Garcia,) is an average man with short brown hair who wears a suit to work at an ad agency.

You can tell he’s a little off-kilter, though, from the beginning of the play. Part of it is because he carries the ashes of his recently diseased dear old mom with him everywhere he goes. He carries them to the office of his hilariously-smug doctor, (played by Kristina Johnson,) who dismissingly hands him three giant bottles of pills–one to keep him awake, one to put him to sleep, one to keep him happy, and to his work, where he is confronted for stealing a large amount of money from the company. That stress, compounded by his nasty coke habit and the nasty debt he’s accumulated for his nasty coke habit, prove to be too much for him to handle.

Charlie suddenly takes off and seeks refuge at the house of an old family friend, Mike, (charismatically performed by Kevin Stark) who begrudgingly tells him about the art of disappearing. He jumps on the idea and Mike helps him with the ins-and-outs, of which he is an expert because he himself has disappeared dozens of times, and before he knows it, Charlie is Adam.

The problem is, you can change your identity but you can’t change who you are. Adam quickly realizes he is doomed to live the same life because, although he has a new name, he still has the same quirks, addictions, and chemical imbalances.

Throughout the play, whether Charlie or Adam, he is almost always enduring some form of panic attack. The rapt audience follows suit and experiences minor panic attacks themselves, yet somehow thoroughly enjoying all 120+ minutes of it. There is never a dull moment in How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found. The dialogue is poetic and witty, sometimes even hysterical in an existential kind of way. The story is impeccably acted by a talented group– a very small cast who create a very big world, seamlessly slipping from character to character, except for one wonderfully un-naturalistic moment when Kasia Januszewski tears off her coat and wig to switch characters, playing both the woman leaving a voicemail on Charlie’s phone to the phone itself, cheerfully announcing that the message has been deleted.

How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found is Kennedy’s first stab at the eschewal of naturalism. There is a surrealistic, Brazil-like feel to the play, a dark carnival of existential dread and frantic hissy fits. The style works well for the subject, mimicking the chaos and confusion Charlie is experiencing, making for a very powerful play. Although the play is not lighthearted by any means, it is a pleasure to take in, and it should not be missed.

How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found was directed by Richard Cotovsky and produced by the Mary-Arrchie Theatre Company. It is currently playing at Angel Island, 735 W. Sheridan Rd., and will continue through Dec. 20. For showtimes, tickets, and other information, call 773-871-0442 or visit Mary-Arrchie’s website.

— Kelly Reaves

SOURCE: http://gapersblock.com/ac/2009/11/16/its-not-better-to-disappear-than-to-fade-away/

Theater review

HOW TO DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY AND NEVER BE FOUND

Mary-Arrchie Theatre. By Fin Kennedy. Dir. Richard Cotovsky. With ensemble cast.

IDENTITY DEFT Stark, left, sets Garcia up.

London playwright Kennedy’s 2006 work is about an in-over-his-head midlevel marketing exec named Charlie. It’s also about a cipher named Adam. Both are played with charming intensity by Carlo Lorenzo Garcia, who is not playing multiple characters. Or is he? That’s the question at the heart of Kennedy’s unsettlingly funny and provocative play.

“Charlie Hunt is nothing more than a collection of pieces of paper,” the slippery Mike (Kevin Stark, spot-on as an artful codger) tells Charlie, who’s gotten too deep into debt, drugs and embezzling. In the wake of his mother’s death, Charlie’s world has come crashing down, and a hunch has driven him out of desperation to Mike, a mysterious acquaintance who showed up at his mother’s funeral and becomes Charlie’s tutor in abandoning his old identity and adopting a new one as Adam.

William Anderson’s inventive, off-kilter set reflects Kennedy’s disorienting setup, in which Charlie finds cutting his ties with the world fairly easy logistically but perhaps too difficult psychologically. While the playwright’s first-act rants about the indignities of modern life are wholly relatable in Garcia’s hands, they also impede our sense of the play’s direction, and the device of a pathologist (Shannon Clausen) who keeps telling Charlie he’s already dead just confuses matters. But Kennedy’s points about the mutability of identity in the bureaucratic age will be turning over in our heads for quite a while.

How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found
When: Through 12/20: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 7 PM,
Phone: 773-871-0442
Price: $5-$22

Kevin Stark, Carlo Lorenzo Garcia

RECOMMENDED

When London ad exec Charlie (Carlo Lorenzo Garcia) feels the walls closing in—his coke habit is spiraling and his dealer after him for money, he’s caught extorting money from a client, and most disturbingly he’s increasingly convinced nothing around him is real—he turns to a con-artist family friend (Kevin Stark, stealing the show as wiley Mike) who helps him take on a new identity in a post-Facebook world. Of course, since Charlie is running away from himself, there’s an inevitable grievous ending, but the show’s motor is independent of its somewhat predictable plot. Dialogue is extremely quick witted and droll—dare I say, very British—amongst a stellar ensemble that manages to portray a realistic, class-conscious strata of London. There are some incredible monologues about postmodern life, including an unforgettable rant about lost cell phones by a London transit worker. As the surreal, Kafkaesque story weaves between nightmare and gritty realism, director Richard Cotovsky keeps a constant tension between expressionism and naturalism.

SOURCE: http://newcitystage.com/2009/11/16/review-how-to-disappear-completely-and-never-be-foundmary-arrchie-theatre-co/

Centerstage Show Review
Reviewer: Sarah Terez Rosenblum
Friday Nov 13, 2009

Set in the world of advertising, Fin Kennedy’s “How to Disappear Completely and Never be Found” is a tale of excess and loss. When ad executive Charlie (Carlo Lorenzo Garcia, equally excellent in moments dire and humorous) loses consciousness and wakes to find himself inexplicably in the subway’s Lost and Found, it’s clear his grip on reality is slipping. Pursued by a mysterious pathologist who knows a little too much about him, and clutching his dead mother’s ashes, Charlie must navigate through an increasingly alienating and claustrophobic world in which Starbucks crowd every corner and, to quote the peculiar proprietor of the Lost and Found, “you are nothing so long as you are quiet.”

The show’s topsy-turvy set, all hidden doors and crooked walls, and moody lighting combine with its brisk, anxious pace to a create a rising sense of disquiet. Director Richard Cotovsky uses and reuses actors, contributing to the faceless society the play depicts. Although individually talented, the ensemble’s facility with dialects proves a unifying factor, allowing the audience to suspend disbelief as an unbelievable story unfolds. In totality a strong production, “How to Disappear” pushes all our postmodern buttons, reminding us of how fast we as a society scurry, only to remain standing still.
SOURCE:http://www.centerstagechicago.com/theatre/shows/8422.html

How To Disappear Completely and Never Be Found by Fin Kennedy

Scathing personal view of modern society leads to drastic action
British playwright Fin Kennedy, a young relatively unknown playwright in the USA, is a talented, contemporary writer with an edge to his writing. His Midwest American Premiere of How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found, now playing at Mary-Arrchie Theatre, is a engrossing and cynical condemnation of modern society that causes a corporate middle manager to self-destruct.

With whimsical staging by director Richard Cotovsky and a cast of players sporting mostly authentic middle class contemporary British accents, How to Disappear Completely and Never be Found unfolds as a searing indictment of the foibles of modern society so filled with dehumanizing rituals, long working hours and electronic devices that render personal communication obsolete.

We meet Charlie (Carlo Lorenzo Garcia) as he is in the midst of a physical and emotional breakdown instigated by the death of his mother and all the corporate pressure from long hours doing marketing. Garcia is wonderful as the British middle class everyman with hints of Willy Loman. Garcia’s performance was deeply rooted in truth as he exhibits the neurotic foibles of a man at his wits end. Garcia navigates the action never fully realizing where reality and fantasy begin and end. We empathize with Charlie as the pressures mount and he disintegrates.   Garcia wonderfully delivers a cynically funny monologue about what he could do–but doesn’t as his world falls apart. Garcia’s performance alone justifies seeing this show!

Charlie is forced to  run from criminal charges place against him by his employers that we never learn if they are true. He ends up at Mike’s (Kevin Stark) house–a friend of his departed mother. Mike is an older man and an expert in identity change. He expertly demonstrates to Charlie how to manipulate the British bureaucracy so one person can completely disappear and never be found.  Since Charlie faces jail, he has nothing to lose by disappearing. Mike shows him how to become Adam.

This cleverly written and fast-paced show cover much with wit, humor and a stinging commentary. charlie–now Adam learns the truth that befuddles an identity change: you take your demons with you no matter who or where you are. He learns Mike’s most profound lesson: to enjoy the little things in daily life.

We witness fine acting with smart accents especially from Scott Danielson, Shannon Clausen, James Eldrenkamp, Kevin Stark and Carlo Lorenzo Garcia. Playwright Fin Kennedy is a refreshing new voice that we need to hear from more.

Highly Recommended

Tom Williams

Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast

Date Reviewed: November 14,2009

Jeff Recommended

At Angel Island, 735 W. Sheridan Road, Chicago, IL, Call 773-871-0442, tickets $20 -$22, Thursdays thru Saturdays at 8 pm, Sundays at 7 pm, running time is 2 hours with intermission, through December 20, 2009

Fin Kennedy’s witty dialogue drives suspenseful production

Mary-Arrchie Theatre Company presents

How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found

by Fin Kennedy
directed by Richard Cotovsky
runs through Dec. 20 ( ticket info )

reviewed by Leah A. Zeldes

London ad executive Charlie Hunt’s world is disintegrating. He’s just cremated his mother. His all-consuming work leaves him no time to go anywhere or meet anyone, and he’s more and more bothered by a belief that everything in his life is fake. He’s putting massive amounts of money up his nose, his colleagues are asking disturbing questions and he keeps hearing a buzzing in his ears.

Pushed to the edge, one day he simply runs out of his office, leaving his jacket on the back of his chair and his mum’s funeral urn on his desk, and they never hear from him again.

Charlie is the central character of the intriguing "How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found" by rising young British playwright Fin Kennedy , now in Midwest premiere from Mary-Arrchie Theatre at the intimate Angel Island theater . How to Disappear was the first unproduced play in 40 years to win an Arts Council John Whiting Award for New Theatre Writing , after — according to the playwright — being rejected by nearly every theater in London.

Kennedy’s razor-sharp language, exhibited in powerful monologues and witty dialogue, builds a rising suspense as Charlie runs from his former life. Carlo Lorenzo Garcia puts in an intense and fascinating performance as the deteriorating Charlie, expounding on all the frustrations of daily life that all of us experience but few of us act upon. He’s excelled only by the impish Kevin Stark , as Mike, the small-time crook who serves as Charlie’s mentor in disappearing.

Director Richard Cotovsky ’s clever staging adds to the frenetic quality of the work. He gets excellent work from the supporting cast, most of whom play multiple characters — Charlie’s colleagues, chance-met strangers, doctors, telephone operators, etc. James Eldrenkamp stands out in a comic role as a London transit worker, juxtaposing ably with Charlie’s stuffy, upper-class boss.

Dialect coach Kathy Logelin must be an effective teacher — the cast handles class-conscious British with scarcely a stumble. They haven’t spent much on the set, but Scenic Designer William Anderson ’s 2-by-4 and newspaper backdrops contribute effectively to the disjointed, surreal quality of the play.

Although there’s no program credit or reference to it in the script, "How to Disappear" was clearly inspired by the classic manual of the same name by Doug Richmond , first published in 1986 by the late, lamented underground publisher Loompanics Unlimited . In one the best scenes in the show, Charlie’s mentor, Mike, explains the techniques in detail. They’ve been updated — with references to SIM cards and Facebook — and slightly adapted for the U.K., but readers of the original will recognize the mechanics as Richmond explained them two decades ago. Whether they still work in these post-9/11, security-conscious days is debatable. Then, as now, it depends on who you want to get away from.

In Charlie’s case, it becomes increasingly clear that that’s himself.

Rating: ★★★

Notes: Second-floor theater has no wheelchair access. Paid parking may be available at the Mobil gas station across the street.

PHOTOS BY RYAN BOURQUE

Artistic Team

“How To Disappear Completely and Never Be Found” is JEFF RECOMMENDED!

The designation of “Jeff Recommended” is given to a production when at least ONE ELEMENT of the show was deemed outstanding by the opening night judges of The Joseph Jefferson Awards Committee. The entire production is then eligible for nomination for awards at the end of the season. www.jeffawards.org