Selecting a Play - Brian Greer

I apologize for the extremely late posting of all these blogs, however these are records from various rehearsals and conversations with actors.

Selecting a play for this one-act festival was far more difficult than I could have imagined. I looked at various anthologies, but most of the one-acts in those were forty-five minutes. Our limit was obviously twenty minutes. From there, I struggled with myself to decide what genre I wanted. Would it be a drama or comedy? Would it be a light or dark comedy? I had to ask myself these questions, and that’s what led me to “The Goon” by Pete Malicki. It’s a goofy play, and that’s what I wanted. The two goons, Blarney and Gary, are written to have these endearing qualities. They feel an obligation to uphold the status quo, but also aspire to much more than being goons. As Gary says, “And I’m sick of being demonized just because I’m a goon.” The two goons want to be valued as individuals, and I think that’s all we really want. It’s nice, really, that in less than fifteen minutes, I think Mr. Malicki does that. Riverman, the hero, is dead at the start of the play. In an attempt to please their boss, the goons decide Blarney must wear Riverman’s outfit. The third character, Monsieur Poulette, is the villain to the goons, and a stereotypical one at that. He is a mustache-wielding, beret-wearing Frenchman, whom only desires to conquer the world. Now that Blarney has this disguise, he is able to speak out against the horrible treatment he has received from his boss. This mask allows Blarney to speak up without consequence. I find it mimics the way we view social media sites.

So yes, the play is extremely goofy. There are various sight-gags, plays-on-words, and silly conventions, but the play does hit various levels within myself and I hope that translates to the audience. Otherwise, what am I doing?