- OTHER MEDIA
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- SF Bay Guardian March 11, 2009 (Robert Avila)
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- After 2006's runaway hit, Hunter Gatherers, local sketch-comedy masters
Killing My Lobster had their work cut out for them in producing the second
of the group's full-length plays. But they return with another big success
on their hands. Matt Pelfrey's Pure Shock Value brilliantly updates the
scathingly bleak Hollywood satire for a post-Tarantino generation of Silver
Lake slackers. Would-be director and amiable slob Ethan (Chris Yule), his
spastic screenwriter-bro Tex (Justin Lamb), and slowly unraveling longtime
girlfriend Gabby (Erin Carter) are in last-ditch mode when a disgusting
intruder (Calum Grant) lands face-first on the rug of their shabby east-of-Hollywood/Eden
apartment — designed with a pitch-perfect touch by Emily Greene —
only to present them with a startling opportunity. Fired by director Laley
Lippard's muscular staging and her truly great, balls-to-wall cast, a conceit
that might easily have slipped into tired formula in less able hands here
remains vital, grippingly funny, and outrageous more or less to the end
— wobbling slightly only once, just before the irresistibly depraved
final scene. KML have consistently shown way above average taste and skill
in the acting and production departments. Their shepherding of new plays
by emerging playwrights like Peter Sinn Nachtrieb and Pelfrey is, needless
to say, a wholly welcome and exciting development on the local scene.
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