by Nick Darke
Starring Sarah Marshall
Directed by Howard Shalwitz
The Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
1401 Church Street, NW
Washington, DC
Extended through October 17, 1999
By Shirley J.
Gregory
The Woolly Mammoth opened its 20th season with
the return of Sarah Marshall in The Dead
Monkey by Nick Darke. 
Sarah
Marshall, a well-known and accomplished local actor, who also teaches acting at
Georgetown University, is excellent in her portrayal of Dolores, the beach bunny
turned housewife who, on the brink of a nervous breakdown, delivers an ultimatum
she hopes will revive what originally attracted them to each other.
This is her reprisal of her role from the 1989 Woolly Mammoth production
of The Dead Monkey, and it is
brilliant.
he Dead Monkey
is a surreal glimpse at their extreme, sometimes hilarious, and sometimes
desperate lengths to save their 15-year old marriage. A traveling salesman’s job keeps him “zooming down the
highway” week in and week out with nothing to sustain him except philosophical
musings involving his monkey, slowly going mad.
Dolores has to stay home in
their small shack on a Southern California beach, going mad a little bit faster
from loneliness and boredom, with nothing to do but take care of his monkey.
When the monkey dies there’s mingled sadness and relief for both of them, and it is the pivotal point for their marriage. Can they keep their marriage intact when the thing that brought them together and kept them together – the monkey -- is gone? Can their marriage be saved? Should it be saved? Should they have ever married? The last scene and the last line provide the key to the answer. It also, unfortunately, introduces a jangling false note into this surreal farce.
Playwright Nick Darke is an Englishman who’d never set
foot in the USA when he wrote The Dead
Monkey in the mid-1980s. Director
Howard Shalwitz says that in many respects this is a play about various images
of America’s cultures as reflected in movies, television, magazines, and
plays, which were the sources of Drake’s view of America during that period.
Hank and Dolores’ marriage resembles the Honeymooner’s TV show on
steroids. Freakish kinkiness gives
way to comedic situations and dialogue, but tension and a sense of danger
steadily build. The play is
powerful and dark beneath a humorous facade.
This is not light entertainment, nor is it recommended for
a romantic date. Never mind the
couple of graphic violent scenes and the couple’s weird behavior (they are
nearly mad after all), it’s the steady flow of foul language that overwhelms
playgoers like a mud slide that leaves one feeling really icky and soiled.
Many “R”-rated movies use considerably less.
One could distance oneself from the brief scenes of raw violence, but the
constant stream of obscenities seem to penetrate the pores.
David Marks, as the husband Hank, is thoroughly convincing
as the aging flower child slash beach bum slash surfboard jockey unsure of how
to save his marriage, but willing to try anything. Bruce Nelson’s portrayal of the Vet was entertainingly
reminiscent of the Monty Python crew.
For ticketing information, call ProTix 703/218-6500
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