So who will play me in THIS movie?
Here's an example in which I truly hope that life doesn't imitate art.
Bee reader Ralene Stevens passes along news about a new play called "Eat the Runt" by Robert Riechel Jr. that recently opened at the Hudson Guild Theatre in Santa Monica. According to L.A. Weekly, the play is about a theater critic named The Man who is kidnapped and brutalized for his scathing review in The Fresno Bee of a new work by a blowhard playwright.
Yes, you read that correctly: Unspeakable acts performed on The Fresno Bee's theater critic! Gives you shivers, doesn't it? (Or, at least, it should give ME shivers.) LA Weekly describes the plot:
Mr. Lone [the playwright] may or may not have used a gun in the apprehension of the drama critic from his bed (he shows up in pajamas, blindfolded and gagged). We first see him dragged into Lone's grubby basement apartment punctuated by a poster of Samuel Beckett, who provides the scribe his dark inspiration. The Man is a smart, bitter fellow, an obit writer who takes occasional assignments as the paper's drama critic ... Lone's over-sexed, sadistic girlfriend, Hammer, provides the third link of a triangle that spins almost off the stage in Riechel's hostage drama, because both the rudely portrayed Hammer (a smart, willing "slut") and Lone's self-evident insanity give long-suffering drama critics a power that exists only in the long-suffering hearts of self-absorbed playwrights, who simply haven't caught on yet that critics don't make much difference.
No idea if Riechel (the real playwright) is from Fresno -- he doesn't show up in the Bee's archives -- and I'm wondering if good old Fresno is just performing its semi-regular stand-in role as butt for the joke. Or maybe I should invest in that flak jacket and 24-hour security service after all. What I do know is that I desperately want to go see the play before it closes Dec. 13.
Comments:
Just keep giving away free stuff, Donald, and you'll have everyone on your side in no time.
Posted by: Heather at November 12, 2008 4:44 PM
holy crap.
thats one hell of a "did they just say fresno?"
... well, you know youre famous down there.
Posted by: will at November 12, 2008 4:54 PM
About the author/director...
Robert Riechel Jr. (Writer & Director) - TV includes: Series creator/director/writer: The Living Edge (WB network 100+/ worldwide), Series creator/director: Living Ageless (Syndicated), Series creator/director: Life is Stranger Than Fiction (syndicated). Director commercials: Lucas Oil, Verizon, Cargill, Venoco, Awake 2000, TTI National, Men for Sobriety and many more. As an actor: Film recent: Wish. Hadda. Gun. Theater: Zoo Story, Woolgather, Speed The Plow, True West, Buried Child, American Buffalo.
Donald,
If I were you, whether you see this play or not, I'd give it two thumbs up
Posted by: Ray Arthur at November 12, 2008 8:00 PM
If you don't like the play and write a review, that'll be interesting...a scathing review by the Fresno Bee critic about a play concerning a scathing review by the Fresno Bee critic.
Posted by: Lisa at November 12, 2008 11:03 PM
...nah, pan it,
I think the sequel might be more interesting than the origional...
(It doesn't say anything about the playwrite being a re-enactor of any sort, does it?)
Just wondering...
(...see? Fresno CAN be exciting...)
Posted by: wet towel at November 13, 2008 6:23 AM
Thanks for the research on the playwright, Ray. I now know this play wasn't written by a bitter veteran of the now defunct Theatre Three, say.
Posted by: Donald Munro at November 13, 2008 10:45 AM
Donald, if they ever make the movie, I'm picturing someone like a younger version of Bob Balaban as you. Or maybe Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Posted by: felicia matlosz at November 13, 2008 11:38 AM
Yes, Robert Riechell was raised in Fresno and graduated from Bullard High in 1978. Eat The Runt is well worth the drive down to LA.
Posted by: Ralene Stevens at November 19, 2008 5:36 PM
A friend shot me this link and I'll tell ya what Donald: get on your horse and come on down to LA and I'll have tickets waiting for you. Sure its a risk, it's a scary thing, but so is waking up in the morning sometimes. One condition though: ya gots to were a Bullard football helmet (cuzz lotsa stuff flies in this thing) and a bulletproof vest (just in case) oh and you HAVE to laugh...or ELSE.
See you on the boards...
Robert Riechel
Posted by: Robert Riechel at November 21, 2008 7:21 AM
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