Up to Scratch

Theatre Exile's Bug is a creepy-crawly must-see.

by Mark Cofta

	print	email	reply	rss feed

Published: May 6, 2008

FEAR AND ROACHING: In Theatre Exile's Bug, Matt Saunders plays Peter, haunted by the ghosts of his past and an insect in his motel room. (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Two lonely, damaged people find hope in each other: a sweet story, right? Not in Theatre Exile's must-see Bug, the deliciously creepy tale by super-hot playwright Tracy Letts, author of Killer Joe (an Exile hit two years ago) and the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama August: Osage County.

Grace Gonglewski's Agnes has "hermatized" herself in a boxy motel cell (perfectly realized by Matt Saunders) in nowhere, Okla., where she self-medicates with cocaine, crack and booze, freaked out by the constantly ringing phone. No one answers when she picks up, but she knows it's ex-husband Jerry (William Zielinski), out of jail and on his way. She connects with Peter (the multitalented Saunders), a taciturn ex-soldier who admits he makes people nervous because he "picks up on things" that others don't perceive.

Maybe these broken misfits can help each other. Maybe ... and then they hear something. A cricket? Then an itch: Is there something in the bed?

The brilliance of director Matt Pfeiffer's superb production is that we care so much about these characters, even as their horror builds. Maybe Peter's an escaped psych patient, or perhaps a government test subject. Agnes is tortured by guilt over her son's disappearance years before. Their bond is strengthened by shared adversity — both flee tragedies, pursued by ghosts — and their battle against an infestation that we're never sure is real, even as we watch their belief consume them.

Bug so engrosses that it's difficult to step back and admire theater artists at their best: Saunders and Gonglewski bare all, not only physically (raw, non-sexy nudity), but emotionally. Charlotte Northeast plays Agnes' protective friend, Ronnie, with fervor, and Zielinski's Jerry seethes with violence. Saunders' set is painstakingly realistic, including a claustrophobia-inducing ceiling (something sets seldom include), lit with subtle skill by Paul Moffitt. James Sugg's sound design suitably builds suspense, and John Bellomo's detailed fight choreography explodes frighteningly.

Sure, there are bigger issues here, ideas about paranoia and conspiracy and desperation, but Bug unfolds with brutal honesty: Every drink, every punch, every kiss — and all those damn itchy bug bites — is unnervingly real. I defy you not to marvel, to thrill, to squirm — and to scratch.

(m_cofta@citypaper.net)

Bug Through May 18, Theatre Exile, Christ Church Neighborhood House, 20 N. American St., 215-922-4462, theatreexile.org

Things That Matter To People Who Matter
Pig Latin
Very Long Engagement
Glass Half-Full
To Inch His Own
Moving Research: slip
Philadanco
Iolanta