If you find Larry David’s misanthropic character on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” too kind and generous, then Morris Panych’s “Vigil” may be your idea of a fun dark comedy. The absurdity is hilarious if you’re in the mood, and his leading character is similarly free of the warm-and-fuzzy.
But even if you have little tolerance for vicious humor, there’s still reason to embrace “Vigil,” thanks to a tour de force performance by Larry Hecht.
In the Modern Muse Theatre Company’s new production at the Bug Theatre, Hecht delivers a breathtaking turn as a bitter, middle-aged English transvestite named Kemp who pays a visit to his aunt before her death. He assumes it will be a brief visit.
“Let’s not talk about anything depressing,” Kemp says. “Do you want to be cremated?”
When her passing refuses to occur on a timely schedule, his patience explodes.
Shuttling in and out of her humble bedroom, he fusses and fumes, delivering bleak one-liners accompanied by a loudly ticking clock. The zingers are punctuated by lights-out at the end of all 38 fleeting scenes.
“We should discuss your organs.”
The blackout effect grows tiresome. Yet Hecht’s reappearance – whether in a suit or a frumpy woman’s bathrobe – energizes the proceedings as the comedy ranges from dry to brittle.
The cruel humor on the subject of death and dying, and the extended examples of Kemp’s self-loathing, are played to comic effect. The tone varies from wonderfully absurd to impossibly nasty.
Hecht’s range, control and smart delivery of exceptionally cutting bits keep the Pinter-esque folly moving.
Patty Mintz Figel has the mostly silent and bedridden role as the elderly Grace. When she sneaks out of bed, Figel does an endearing senior tiptoe prance. Hecht erupts, laughs, cries, screams and delivers pudding, delivering emotional highs and lows while sustaining physical and emotional torture throughout the evening.
Creatively bordering the action, partial wooden frames hung downstage suggest windows through which the pair observe the world.
When he looks outside, Kemp sees pathetic human beings. He acknowledges he doesn’t like people, and as he recounts the misery of his childhood, it’s possible to see why. Of course when he looks inside, he sees a miserable, defective specimen of a human.
The play’s trick is bringing the tale around to the tender, respectful upshot after too many examples of vicious humor. How can a sour, eternally isolated reject suffering a deficit of love in childhood come around to finding his humanity as an adult? The script leans so heavily on the absence of love that it must pack an extra punch to make some sort of sweet redemption seem possible.
Luckily, the playwright has a clever device in store and, under the nimble direction of Billie McBride, Hecht grabs the audience and makes the transformation credible.
Staff writer Joanne Ostrow can be reached at 303-820-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com.
*** | “Vigil”
DARK COMEDY|Modern Muse Theatre Company|Directed by Billie McBride|Starring Larry Hecht and Patty Mintz Figel|At the Bug Theatre, 3695 Navajo St.|THROUGH APRIL 2|8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays|1 hour, 40 minutes|$12-$22|303-780-7836 or modernmusetheatre.com
