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Inner City Productions Bodega Lung Fat
by Mike Batistick
Directed by Sam Neophytou
Hackney Empire - Studio Theatre
11 – 28 March 2009
A review by Alice MacKenzie for EXTRA! EXTRA!
Bodega Lung Fat has a strange, unappetising name, and a wickedly funny and ‘political correctness’ shattering script. An obese, unemployed electrician, a drunken Chinese restaurant owner, a Latino drug dealer and a Hasidic Jew in the middle of a religious crisis hang around on a street corner in Brooklyn. Their lives are messily tied together on just the wrong side of legal, and Sampson, the electrician spends the play trying to find a way to untangle his way over to the other side, whenever he’s not busy adding his own insults to the ones that fly back and forth across this bit of pavement. Sam Neophytou does justice to Mike Batistick’s script, as it is delivered with great timing by the cast. Stephen Hoo’s Chinese restaurant owner ‘Charlie’ spent Bodega Lung Fat as a brilliant drunk, refusing to cook egg rolls (“They are Vietnamese!”). Language and the way it is used and owned is important in the play. Charlie’s language taunts and his quick tongue serves to remind everyone that although he may be the clearest outsider with his broad Chinese accent, he’s not the only one in the group removed verbally and economically from mainstream America. Also good but in a very different way, George Georgiou’s Hassidic Jew ‘Menachem’ used the rhythm of his voice, language and contained gestures to set himself apart. And then there was Sampson, Bodega Lung Fat’s, almost hero. Daniel Frost played him as a man who feels that he is a real Average Joe, but with above average one liners and smarter than he thinks he is. He was pitched just right next to the other characters, whose roles as ‘personalities’ made them very funny but also very big. Frost’s Sampson was someone that the audience could fall for in a way and he felt believable – except for the obese bit. No belly padding under a shirt was ever going to convince the audience that this was really incredibly fat. But then, in a way this incongruity just added to the physical humour. The set and lighting did not really add much to the play as it didn’t give the feeling of a street corner or two shops. Even with a simple set, a real atmosphere can be created. But the light and set were not really the focus. The writing and acting were the focus and both were great. Bodega Lung Fat wasa good surprise after a press description with an intimidatingly long and heavy list of issues to address: euthanasia, prostitution, rape, drugs, alcoholism, racism, religion and poverty. The chemistry between the male cast members set up an easy energy was really good to watch. The men spoke of the women who influenced the decisions that they made, for better or worse, but these women didn’t appear. The mystery of these women, who were described by different people, overheard and quoted, but not seen was also interesting, and so it was a bit disappointing to meet the one female character, Abbey. Not because the actress didn’t play her role well, as Mitzi Thaddeus gave a competent and sweet turn as Mike’s meter-maid girlfriend. But simply because her presence broke this male chemistry, and didn’t add enough of a change or information to justify it. Abbey appeared and all her possibilities were suddenly answered in one solid person. The other two pivotal women, Gloria the prostitute and Menachem’s wife never appeared and so bring into question the reason for Abbey’s entrance. Bodega Lung Fat asks its audience to think about duty, what’s right and wrong. The characters get trapped into cycles that they don’t know how to escape, in which the choices that they have are minimal, and the responsibilities that they have to take for those choices are huge. And yet the chemistry between the male actors and the sharpness of the script made it enjoyable and strangely upbeat to watch. The audience was left with an unexpectedly tragic ending. The lights clicked back on almost instantly and the actors were once again themselves. This was a shame as it robbed the ending of a bit of its power. Bodega Lung Fat is a strong play and the audience need a little bit of time in the dark to let its implications sink in.
Box Office: 020 8985 2424 Tickets: £12.50 + Concessions Hackney Empire Studio Theatre
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ary Couzens