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Review Wed Jan 19 2011
Review: Mascot @ The Prop Theater
Mascot, a one-act, one-man play running at the Prop Theater for the next four Saturdays, is the creation of writer Chris Bower of Ray's Tap Reading Series in collaboration with Found Objects Theater Group. In it, actor Matt Test draws us into the interior life of a man whose greatest passion is football, and who has become estranged from his wife and son. The action takes place in the man's living room, represented by a sparsely decorated set consisting of an armchair, a TV, and a metal clothes rack dominated by the presence of a soiled bear mascot costume.
In the man's darkly comic monologue we learn about his wife, his son, and the circumstances that led to the restraining order that keeps him from watching his son's high school football games. At times the set goes dark, sending the audience even deeper into the man's mind as he becomes a disembodied voice not only estranged from his family, but from the audience's sight.
The script is wry, sad, and clever, and prompts laughter even in it's darkest moments. Test's performance put me in the mind of Paul Giamatti in the film Sideways, only without the comic foil of Thomas Haden Church, and without the happy ending. At the play's climax, Test inhabits the mascot costume, and in that moment becomes something other than himself.
Mascot is part of this year's Rhinoceros Theater Festival, and runs for the next four Saturdays at 9pm at the Prop Theater, 3502 N. Elston. Tickets are $15 or pay-what-you-can, and can be bought online at brownpapertickets or by phone reservation at (773) 508-0666.
