Playwright Keiko Green’s soap-operatic Southern Gothic melodrama “Hometown Boy” lends additional credence to author Thomas Wolfe’s famous suggestion that a person “can’t go home again.” Her protagonist, James, hesitantly returns to the small, unnamed Georgia town where he grew up, awkwardly reuniting with Walter, the “eccentric” father he hasn’t seen in 10 years.
“There’s going to be a lot of weird,” James warns his accompanying girlfriend, nicknamed Becks, and foretelling an inordinate number of proverbial skeletons that inevitably emerge from his family closet. Inevitably, as in predictably. Contrary to Becks’ observation about things “bubbling” beneath the surface, many of the most predominant and lurid plot turns in Actor’s Express’ world-premiere production of “Hometown Boy” overflow far too obviously.
Green, a Marietta native who’s now based in California, only fleetingly references the past history of the play’s fictional Asian American family, at least as it pertains to their time in an Arkansas internment camp. And when James recalls an adolescent incident in the rural Georgia community they eventually called home, Walter objects, dismissing it as “politics.” “Don’t make me a victim of discrimination in my own town,” he admonishes.
Delving deeper in those directions may have been more stimulating, if less salacious, but “Hometown Boy” opts to dwell instead on sordid and murky character kinks and background details. There’s the matter of James’ sexual habits (or lack thereof); how Walter accidentally killed the family cat, or the scandalous affair with James’ high-school teacher (who also happened to be the mayor’s daughter) that prompted his wife and son to abandon him years ago; Walter’s squalid living conditions, and a suspiciously locked door to his basement.
Out-of-town director Rebecca Wear’s Express staging is chiefly distinguished by yet another marvelous set by sister scenic designers Isabel and Moriah Curley-Clay. During different scene changes over the course of the play’s 90 intermission-less minutes, a section of Walter’s cluttered living room detaches and revolves to become the town’s hole-in-the-wall bar, and later his trashy kitchen literally turns into the decidedly fancier kitchen of another character.
Who that other character is might be better left undivulged, lest it spoil any ostensible twists (even though a lot of astute viewers will already see them coming). Similarly, it’s definitely worth noting that it’s terrific to see veteran Atlanta actor Chris Kayser again after 18 or 19 months, live and in person at his alternately charming and calculating best — but to elaborate further about his flashy supporting role would probably be a disservice, too.
Credit: Casey Gardner Ford
Credit: Casey Gardner Ford
Elsewhere in the cast, Ryan Vo and Michelle Pokopac are simply serviceable as James and Becks. Although some of his dialogue isn’t always articulated very clearly, Glenn Kubota invests Walter with a pronounced poignance to counterbalance his ornery idiosyncrasies, as an aging man possibly suffering from dementia and increasingly prone to straying “off track,” unsure about who to trust among those around him claiming to have his best interests in mind. Rounding out the ensemble are a laid-back Daniel Parvis and an erratic Allison Dayne.
Whether its genre is Southern Gothic or Grand Guignol is open to debate, but the production is replete with requisite bouts of moody thunder and lightning either way (provided by sound and lighting designers Jeremiah Davison and Cody Evins). Green’s script is filled with too many far-fetched, it’s-a-small-world (or town) coincidences, and too few moments of calm contrast, as in a scene when someone talks about the significance of personal secrets and “reset buttons.”
“It’s complicated,” James admits to Becks early on. To more accurately describe “Hometown Boy” as convoluted isn’t exactly the same thing.
THEATER REVIEW
“Hometown Boy”
Through Nov. 28. 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays (excluding Nov. 25); 2 p.m. Sundays. $20-$35. Actor’s Express (at King Plow Arts Center), 887 W. Marietta St. NW, Atlanta. 404-607-7469. www.actors-express.com.
Bottom line: Squalid in more ways than one.
About the Author
