April 12, 2014

To those of you in the Los Angeles area, you are in for a err….. delicious treat! Fans of “Master Of Horror” Stuart Gordon know that he comes from a stage background, and now he’s back with a brand new twisted play, TASTE written by Benjamin Brand, which is now officially open at the Sacred Fools Theater.

One of the things as a fan I’ve always appreciated about Gordon, both his work in film (or television) and stage is that he’s consistently doing something different and loves playing with his audience. I think the less you know about TASTE, the better. All you really need to know is that it’s loosely based upon the story of the Rotenburg Cannibal. Yep, that was that demented true tale you heard about that guy who sought out a man via the Internet to eat & consume him of his own free will. If you want to know the full gruesome details of that case, you can head over to the Wiki page for Armin Meiwes. There have already been plenty of stories, shorts, films, etc. inspired by this case. Two of my personal favorites include the excellent short film by Drew Daywalt called “Dinner Date,” and also DEXTER IS DELICIOUS, the 5th novel in Jeff Lindsay’s popular Dexter series that inspired the Showtime series of the same name, which does a pretty wild take on this story. (It’s also one of the best of the Dexter novels, by the way.) But Gordon’s approach is totally unique.

It takes place over the course of one evening – the night that the characters of Terry and Vic meet for the first (and last) time. The stage is Terry’s apartment, complete with an operational kitchen, which adds to the sensory aspect of watching the story unfold. In the opening moments, Terry cooks up some diced onions and the smell immediately fills the theater only hinting at what strange surprises are yet to come. The leads are played by Donal Thoms-Cappello (as Terry) and Chris L. McKenna (as Vic). Now, Gordon fans will no doubt recognize McKenna both as the lead from his underrated feature KING OF THE ANTS and as Dan Cain role from RE-ANIMATOR: THE MUSICAL. And while I think he does fine work in both of those, he truly shines in TASTE, giving a remarkable and incredible performance as the vulnerable Vic. If anything, you should see this for his performance alone. Donal does fine work here too, playing Terry with a Patrick Bateman-esque playful & obsessive compulsive sense of glee. He seems to be having a blast with the role, whereas McKenna is digging into something much psychologically deeper. I mean, he successfully convinces us that he believes what he’s doing is truly what’s best for him.

Again, I don’t want to delve too much into the details of the actual play because it’s better left unspoiled, but considering this is Gordon, than you can expect the usual trademark black humor that usually comes with his material; although a lot of credit for that also has to go to writer Benjamin Brand, who manages to make what the average person would find to be a repulsive subject, premise & set of characters and yet somehow over the course of the show makes us feel both sympathetic and touched by this pair. It’s as intimate as you can get with these two people and it’s electrifying watching it all unfold. There is a warning before the show of it’s graphic nature and no one under 18 years old will be admitted and it’s for good reason. If you are squeamish to the basic premise itself, or more importantly to strong sexual content, there are a lot of things in this play that will make you terribly uncomfortable. But again, that’s what Gordon does best. There’s always a button he’s willing to push in everything he does that’s intended to make you feel un-at-ease and that’s what I love about his work.

The play is now open and running from April 11th through May 17th at the Sacred Fools theater located at 660 N. Heliotrope, Los Angeles, CA 90004 and tickets can be purchased at their official website right HERE. Below is Gordon’s Hitchcock-esque teaser trailer for the play. You can follow Stuart Gordon on Twitter at this link: https://twitter.com/OfficialSGordon

And if you see & like the play, be sure to spread the word!