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Thursday, November 14, 2013
Arts Theater review: Cock
Posted By Perry Tannenbaum on Thu, Nov 14, 2013 at 4:50 PM
After seeing Kristian Wedolowski as Valmont in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Che in Evita, Giorgio in Passion, and The Arbiter in Chess, I was a little skeptical that he would be able to shrivel himself into the indecisive, self-doubting title character of Cock, Queen City Theatre Company's final presentation at Spirit Square. So my experiences and my preconceptions were the main barriers I had to overcome in the early moments at Duke Energy Theater before I realized how thoroughly Wedolowski had accomplished what I thought would be nearly impossible.
Wedolowski inhabited John's wishy-washiness so thoroughly and credibly last Saturday night that I began to truly loathe this man who has so much difficulty choosing between longtime boyfriend M and newfound ladylove, F. This is a plausible outcome, of course, since the chief meaning of Mike Bartlett's title, properly understood in its British idiom, is that John is an asshole. But Wedolowski has cloaked himself so thoroughly in paralysis, panic, and catatonia that he's flouting the playwright's more important intentions, for us to see John as comical and manipulative in his predicament - and maybe unfairly pressured by both M and W into making a snap choice.
Wedolowski heats up admirably to anger and indignation, but the darker shadings Wedolowski brought to John turned the final dinner scene into a slightly absurd drama, because as it proceeded, I began to wonder why either M or W would wage a serious battle for John's love. Fortunately, the two combatants in this tense, seesaw battle take turns tossing in the towel, so the scene plays fairly powerfully that way.
And there is plenty of comedy in the preceding 12 scenes, chronicling John's vacillation and his first tentative steps into heterosexuality. Surely the most hilarious of these is when John beholds and touches W's vagina for the first time, both hugely revelatory watersheds, sparking an appreciative reciprocation. This is clearly Iesha Hoffman's most substantial role since she shared top billing in Antony and Cleopatra in 2009, sustaining the excellence we've seen from her in the meantime in Macbeth and Doubt. Everything seems to fall in place so naturally for Hoffman, including W's vitality, her salty encouragement, and even the working-class accent. We need more of her.
Considering how sour and starchy Glenn Griffin makes M, we easily see that W is the preferable choice. M lacks tenderness, constantly puts John down, and makes him feel less like a lover than a younger brother. If that weren't enough, he doesn't play fair, inviting his father F to the showdown. Griffin certainly makes W look better the more we see M, but a broader take on his hypocrisy and idiosyncrasies might also lighten the comedy. Nor does it seem necessary for us to be so deeply invested in W's victory.
Griffin, who also directs, has allowed so much comedy to leech out of the final cockfight scene that it's difficult to see how F's appearance might have been intended to heighten it. Hank West is entirely credible as M's dad - but also entirely humdrum and respectable in a production that cries out for more silliness and eccentricity. Instead of the absurdity of everyone wanting this spineless John, I think the absurdity of everyone allied against John, pressuring him to choose, would have played better.
Set design by Wedolowski is a chaste white emblematic of John's tabula rasa rut, nicely complemented by Isabella Marie's modernistic prop designs. Maybe these are the culprits rather than Griffin's stage direction, for the stage has an icy 2001: Space Odyssey feel that seems to have seeped under the actors' skins. They need to thaw out that iciness, inject themselves with more zany energy, and warm up this hotly topical comedy. The core problem of this Cock may indeed be blood-flow.
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