Theatre that Gets Under Your Skin — BUG at UHM

Addison and McGahan

This island is crawling with bugs of all kinds. Even aphids, I’d imagine. But at no moment in my eight years of residence have they ever creeped and crawled in such a disturbing manner as they did last night in the Earl Ernst Lab Theatre at UH Mānoa. The play, by Tracy Letts, is called Bug and it lives up to its title. But it’s about more than just bugs. It’s about people. Some seriously messed up people.

Lindsay Timmington McGahan plays Agnes White, a waitress living in a motel room on the outskirts of Oklahoma City. This is not the Oklahoma from the musical we’ll be seeing later in the year on Kennedy’s mainstage, but some of the characters maybe aren’t all that different. At the core, people are people. It’s experience that separates…or draws certain people together. McGahan’s portrayal of Agnes is outstanding—her movements, her accent, her timing—so natural, so in-the-moment, I sometimes forgot I was watching a play.

A couple things happen to get this story started. Agnes’s ex gets out of lock-up just about the same time a mysterious new guy enters her life—Peter Evans, played by Lavour Addison. Peter isn’t like other people. He’s weird. But nice. Smiles a lot. Agnes is lonely, a recluse, hiding from the world in her rented room stocked with alcohol and narcotics. A match made in motel heaven…? Addison counters McGahan’s nervous, loose-lipped demeanor with an originally even-tempered coolness, creating a palpable dynamic between the two characters. As the play progresses, and Peter’s inner torment takes shape and multiplies, it became more and more difficult for me to keep my eyes on the action and to keep still in my seat. Addison is convincing and intense, unraveling by stages, spinning a web so as to trap everyone in his character’s mental state.

Gaines and McGahan

The supporting actors also give strong performances. Walter S. Gaines plays Agnes’s ex, Jerry Goss. He was perfect. If I met him outside after the show, I’d expect him to be his character, because there wasn’t a hint of pretend when he was on stage—Gaines equaled Goss. (I hope he’s not like his character in real life, though. Not exactly a nice guy!) Angela J.P. Gosalves takes on the role of R.C., Agnes’s best friend, and definitely holds her own, giving her character attitude and intentions that make sense in relation to her story. The only character I couldn’t fully get a reading on was Dr. Sweet, played, by Van Fujishige, perhaps a touch false, especially when everyone else was so believable. But, maybe that was the point…

There were elements some might find distracting. The scene changes are punctuated by longish, noisy blackouts. Personally, because the show was so intense to behold, I generally welcomed the break. There are also two additional characters seen on the peripheral of the show. I imagine they were brought in to make the “world” of the motel and the surrounding area more realistic, but they had the opposite effect for me. Overall, I don’t think those little things matter very much. This is a terrific production—darkly humorous, deeply disturbing, and unbelievably engaging. It raises serious questions about the nature of living in difficult world. How do we cope with the most traumatic of all possible human experiences?

I’ll be looking forward to director Brett Botbyl’s next project, as he has shown a masterful ability here to make theatre that really gets under you skin. The set design, by Brittany Paller, is great. The vibrancy of what’s seen onstage contrasts with the unseen offstage, which becomes increasingly looming and frightening, accentuated by B. Joubért’s sound design. The costumes (or lack there of) by Kale‘a Raymond fit each body, person, and situation, while working well with the overall design. Everything buzzes in this show, from the yellow walls to the cracked-out characters and the energy between them, like the whole theatre, the whole motel room, the whole world…is one giant bug zapper, and any one of us could end up fried at any moment.

For more information, see the Facebook Event Page or the Kennedy Theatre Website.

Photos stolen from McGahan's Facebook album BUG.