Jeffrey Sweet–Making the Scene

When a character in one of my students’ plays says, “Let’s play a game,” alarm bells go off. Almost invariably, the game is some version of the so-called truth game in which the ensemble share a fairly predictable series of embarrassments, betrayals and secrets.

The problem is that these revelations don’t come from credible motivations but rather a playwright embracing a contrivance to introduce the material. I think it’s lazy.

And some significant plays include a version of this. The parlor game the Kirbys play with the Vanderhofs in Kaufman and Hart’s You Can’t Take It With You is the earliest example I know. The stuffy Kirbys get trapped into a word association game, Mrs. Kirby replies to the prompt “sex” with “Wall Street,” and a cat is out of a bag. Edward Albee has George introduce “Get the Guests” in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and the evening takes a rocky turn. And then there’s the telephone game in Mart Crowley’s The Boys in the Band which has always struck me as especially artificial.

I happen to like these three plays, but I like them in spite of this device being employed in them all. (Also, my students usually haven’t yet achieved the compensating skills of Kaufman, Hart, Albee or Crowley.)

Which bring me to Robert O’Hara’s Shit. Meet. Fan. The whole play is built on a version of the truth game. The hosts and guests of a party put their cell phones onto a table and for an hour anything that comes in on the phones – texts, phone calls, email – is shared with all. Of course, the consequences are embarrassments, betrayals and secrets. Mostly sexual revelations. None of them particularly surprising.

Is it entertaining? The stage is filled with actors adept at delivering zingers – among them Neil Patrick Harris, Jane Krakowski, Debra Messing and Constance Wu – and their lines are filled with raw language calculated to trigger gasps. I enjoyed being in their company and admired their their proficiency under O’Hara’s sure hand (he is director as well as author). So yes, I was entertained.

But I couldn’t help but think how much I’d rather watch this ensemble do Congreve’s The Double-Dealer, which is similarly about a group of hypocrites and cheats being trapped into revealing their true natures. Nobody’s done it in town for years and it’s a better script.