SEPTEMBER 15, 1995 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

21

Evenings Out

Skewering the mania for self-revelation

Silver's comedy of manners approaches Oscar Wilde in its satire

The Food Chain

by Nicky Silver

West Side Theatre, New York

Reviewed by Barry Daniels

Nicky Silver has been reinventing American drama in a series of original comedies that pay homage to his precursors as they develop their own distinctive take on contem-

porary urban life. In Pterodactyls (1993), Silver worked a modern

variation on Thornton

therapy, he sees his analyst twice a day, and he has begun a new diet, “Slimfast with every meal!"

Otto's monologues are as extravagant as Amanda's Like hers, his mother was and is abusive. Throughout the night his mother's venomous phone calls punctuate the scene. His cating binge is the comic climax of the scene and a virtuoso piece of comic acting. It

Nicky Silver has written a

manners farce that comes close to matching Oscar Wilde in Wilder, in Raised in verbal brilliance and nonchalant Captivity (1994) he satire of contemporary social seemed inspired by conventions. Albee and Williams; in

his most recent play. The

Food Chain which opened on August 24 at the West Side Theatre in New York-he has written a manners farce that comes close to matching Oscar Wilde in verbal brilliance and nonchalant satire of contemporary social

conventions.

The Food Chain is artfully constructed. The first two parts, “Amanda” and “Otto” are perfectly balanced. They are virtual monologues of desperation. The seemingly disparate elements of the first two parts neatly come together for a farcical fireworks display in the third part. "Fatty and Skinny Lay in Bed..."

When the play opens, it is late at night and we are in a trendily furnished Chelsea apartment Amanda (Hope Davis) is a poet whose filmmaker husband has disappeared after the first week of their three-week-old marriage. Seeking help as she descends into hysteria, she calls a hotline "Contact"---and speaks with Bea ("Loneliness is my oxygen").

Although we learn that Bea (Phyllis Newman) is a widow who hated her dull husband and detests her child, the first part is largely devoted to Amanda's story, which includes a harrowing fat childhood dominated by an abusive mother whose death has freed her to be thin and beautiful, as well as having provided her with a handsome independent income. Amanda's circuitous monologues are surreal nightmares that transcend hysteria through their striking poetic beauty and manic wit. Amanda embodies feminine self-loathing and a desperate need to find the love denied her by her mother.

The second part of the play is set in the chic bedroom of fashion model Serge (Patrick Fabian). The walls are covered with blown-up photos of nude male bodies and the only piece of furniture other than the bed is an exercise machine. Serge is a blond beauty whose specialty is "runway," as he's not quite perfect enough for "print." He is aware of his own vacuousness and is rather complacent about it.

It is the middle of the night and Serge is waiting for his lover to return when Otto (Tom McGowan) begins banging on the door. Otto, who "dated" Serge a few years ago, is grotesquely overweight and has just been fired. He arrives with a bag of junk food and has come to beg Serge to love him and save him from the chaos into which he is slipping. In

reduced the audience to merciless gales of laughter.

Silver manages to bring all the characters together in the final part of The Food Chain. He invents a series of dazzling encounters and in-

tricate complications and revelations that leave the audience breathless with delight and shaking with laughter.

Writing a comedy of manners, Silver has deftly nailed the affluent, arty milieu of Amanda's world and the vacuous narcissism of Serge's gay subculture. He has also neatly skewered our mania for self-revelation to selfrighteous strangers.

Silver has constructed a plot that moves from operatic hysteria to fast-paced farce. He has clothed it all in a style that glitters fiercely like bright colored precious stones thrown at our feet. But, for all its surface sheen, The Food Chain is not a shallow work. The desperate need for love expressed with vehemence by Amanda and Otto is a powerful theme that is present in all of Silver's work. Looking at the buildings opposite her apartment, Amanda comments, “Every window was a painting of isolation." By vividly portraying this isolation, Silver brings depth and poignancy to his comic vision.

The Food Chain has been directed efficiently by Robert Falls and is acted with flair. IfI found the production not as inventive as I think Silver deserves, it is clear that it has been designed to be the commercial success he so richly de-

serves.

The Food Chain seems settled in for a long run at the West Side Theatre, at 407 West 43rd Street in New York. Performances are Monday through Saturday at 8 pm? and Wednesday and Saturday at 2:30 pm. Tickets are $40 and may be purchased by calling Ticketmaster at 212-307-4100.✔

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