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DAILY VARIETY
by
Lynn
Jacobson
TEMPORARY HELP A.C.T
It's billed as a thriller, but David Wiltse's "Temporary Help"
is really more of a black comedy. True, it starts off with
a bang and ends with a memorable parting shot, but in between
there are few plot twists or surprises. Instead, there's laugh
after queasy laugh, as the playwright finds humor in things
that shouldn't be funny (domestic violence, child abuse, murder),
but are. The play is based on a decidedly serious, true-life
crime, in which a Midwestern farmer and his wife murdered
their hired hands. With this scenario in mind, Wiltse invented
Karl and Faye Streber (Thomas Kopache and Stephanie Faracy),
a serial-killing couple who give new meaning to the word "dysfunctional."
When a hunky young drifter (Chad Allen) shows up and
the sheriff (John Procaccino) starts poking around, Karl and
Faye's twisted little world threatens to unravel. Although
the subject matter is grisly, "Temporary Help" is really a
rather delicate play. It requires just the right touch to
keep it funny, but not too funny; believable, but not too
believable.
Overall, director Gordon Edelstein coaxes just the right tone
out of his cast at Contemporary Theater. Kopache plays the
sadistic Karl just a notch or two below Dennis Hopper at his
most psychotic. Faracy plays his sad and vulnerable wife Faye
a little more realistically, for balance. Allen plays Vince,
the drifter, as an almost comic rube, without ever seeming
as though he's condescending to the character. And Procaccino
does a fine, straight turn as the sheriff, the only sane character,
providing relief to the madness. Together, the playwright
and the actors use understatement to great effect. At one
point, after Karl has mentally and emotionally brutalized
Faye and Vince in a particularly cruel way, Vince turns to
Faye and says, "He's kinda weird, isn't he?" This is the kind
of line (and they occur over and over) that shows just how
demanding the script is. Delivered too deadpan, it would sound
plain stupid; delivered too robustly, it would sound almost
desperate for a laugh. But with plenty of understatement and
the slightest hint of irony, it's just right. Also sounding
just the right note is the score by acclaimed guitarist and
composer Bill Frisell. It ranges from blues to disfigured
jazz, echoing the play's mix of "normal life" and noir creepiness.
"Temporary Help" is a slight play, well-constructed and well-
presented in this premiere.
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