The Sucker Punch: An Ingenious Idea

The idea behind Brent Hirose's one-man play (he is author and actor) is original and ingenious:  suppose that after a faux pas one could turn time back a few seconds and say the right thing instead.   Most of us, I expect, can identify with this.   Accept this one premise, and you are ready to be drawn into the situations Hirose creates.   He uses four characters to explore this fantasy.

The show is in 5-minute fragments, with moving the one chair or a lighting change to indicate that a new scene has begun.   However, it takes a while to find out who we are seeing now, and where.   I was puzzled a lot.   I know the line between too simple and too complex is a fine one, and others may well see this play differently.   If only Hirose had done more with voice (one of the four had a slight Irish accent), body language and perhaps token costume change to make clear who we were meeting now.

Along the way we hear a slam poet, are told of a boy cheated in trading baseball cards, an attempt to pick up a barista in a coffee bar, and a husband asking for a raise, not receiving one, returning home drunk and quarrelling with his wife.   But how do all these hang together, and connect with meditating about time, especially in a one-man piece?

FYI - sight-lines in the Origins Organic Coffee venue are bad, so get there early for the few good seats.