Reviewed by Amanda Callas
A Good Guy
is the world premiere of a new drama about school shootings It is taut, suspenseful, and engrossing. There is not an ounce of fat in the spare economy of this play written by David Rambo. The pace is unrelenting, with forceful direction by John Perrin Flynn. A Good Guy has the feel of a dynamic psychological thriller, immersive in the intimate Henry Murray attic theatre. I barely took a breath through the play's brisk 75 minutes.
Playwright David Rambo is well known for his prolific work in television as a producer and writer, particularly on CSI. His writing has a spareness and a well-oiled dynamism that will be a relief to any audience members who find themselves getting fidgety sitting through meandering plays.
Rambo can hit the issue-ness of
A Good Guy
a little hard, in a way that does remind me uncomfortably of television, when the writers room feels the need to comment on timely issues and makes their Emmy-bait Addiction or Abortion or Me Too or Racism episode. There is not a lot of depth or nuance or complexity in this kind of soapboxing and issue-wrangling, where everyone feels good about voicing what is essentially an elevated species of well-rehearsed Facebook rant to the applause of like-minded friends. Instead, I would like to discover an insight or observation that feels genuinely startling and revelatory.
There are times in
A Good Guy
when we hear David Rambo speaking puppet-like through the characters to tell us what he really thinks about Gun Control, School Shootings, and Education / Kids These Days. There is an irony in a man who has made his career and however many millions entertaining people with guns and violence on television lecturing us about guns and violence.
Main character Anna is a devoted math teacher played by Evangeline Edwards, who was a revelation in Rogue Machine's sublime
Heroes of the Fourth Turning
. I described her in
Heroes
as "cocksure, bloodthirsty, and pitiless, and her political and intellectual rants achieve a kind of fiery incandescence on stage. What a bravura, bring-down-the-house performance from Evangeline Edwards."
Anna might be enriched in
A Good Guy
's writing by having deeper characterization and darker, more complicated and flawed shadings. We see Anna constantly victimized by students, military husband, and school administration in
A Good Guy
. It seems a bit of a waste of Evangeline Edwards' vast talent to be playing a slightly one-note, righteous victim of fate. Anna's one flaw (?) is that she owns a gun she does not disclose to the administration, and she is dishonest with the authorities. One can hardly blame her. But Edwards gives Anna a fiercely committed, powerful, resonant dramatic performance that illuminates A
Good Guy
.
I had mixed feelings about Logan Leonardo Arditty's performance in Rogue Machine's
Monsters of the America Cinema
, which felt a bit tonally off to me. Here in
A Good Guy
, Arditty leans into some pretty heavy mannerisms for The Student, which seem overwhelming and excessive, exacerbated by being such a small and intimate space. More simplicity and stripped bare, truthful acting would probably play better upstairs on the Henry Murray Stage.
I absolutely loved Emmy Award winner Suzen Baraka in Rogue Machine's brilliant
can I touch it?
where I described the glorious ferocity of her performance: "We think we know what this character can do to us, but her monologue about beauty and pain was a searing moment of raging dramatic wildfire. It's hard to believe this is the same actor playing the panther smooth, whisper quiet menace of the smiling predatory banker Beth. What a range." Here Baraka also works her magic on stage, shining in the small space where we see every twitch of her face and the depth in her eyes.
In fact, supporting performances by Suzen Baraka and Wayne T. Carr, playing a multitude of supporting characters in
A Good Guy
, are so good that they threaten to steal the show. Baraka and Carr both have a fierce truthfulness and charisma that are completely captivating, and it is a powerhouse display of talent to see them switch characters so effortlessly and richly.
A Good Guy
is tight and well-oiled and much tauter than the average play, and it is mesmerizing. I do not know if A Good Guy brings a deeply fresh or unusually well-thought-out perspective to the horror of gun violence and massacres in schools. Because of the skill of the execution in Rogue Machine's production and Rambo's writing, it may feel like there are more twists and turns and profound revelations than are actually here. Nonetheless,
A Good Guy is riveting.
A Good Guy
runs at 8pm Fridays & Mondays; 5pm Saturdays; 7pm Sundays through October 27, 2024 (no performance on Friday, September 20). Rogue Machine, at the Matrix Theatre (upstairs on the Henry Murray Stage) is located at 7657 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046. Tickets are $45 (Students $25 / Seniors $35). Reservations:
https://www.roguemachinetheatre.org/
or for more information 855-585-5185.