Happy in the Poorhouse

     Founded only in 2006, The Amoralists Theater Company is already notorious for putting on mad, brilliant, funny and moving works that deal with the pleasures and difficulties of human connection and meaning, often in kaleidoscopically beautiful language.  Happy in the Poorhouse, penned by resident playwright Derek Ahonen,  is a champion addition to their repertoire.

     The play begins with Paulie the Pug (a marvelous James Kautz), weeping in his livingroom. In storms his wife Mary (Sarah Lemp) in a teeny tiny polka dot mini-dress and red stiletto heels that have availed her nothing -- he refuses to make love to her out of what seems like Catholic scrupulosity. She screams at him.

“I love you!” he screams back, before punching yet another hole in their wall.
The “I love you,” is important. The reviewer lost count of how many times it was yelled, shouted, and mumbled in this play. Indeed, everybody seems to love everybody else, even if they wish to kill them.  Mary and Paulie are arranging a welcome home party for her ex-husband and his best friend Petie The Pit, who they both still love.

Mary loves her wayward, priapic mailman of a brother Joey (Matthew Pilieci), whose salary and health insurance are the only things keeping them afloat.  Flossie (Megan Ritchie) loves Joey to the point where she lies about her age to get him into bed. Her uncles Sonny and Sally, played by Morton Matthews and Mark Riccadonna, love her to the point that they’re willing to whack Joey for taking her virtue.

Larry the Lab (Patrick McDaniel), who’s turned to working for the mob because he too is broke, seems to have no hard feelings toward the uncles even though they owe his boss money and it’ll be his job to dismember them if they don’t pay. And he really loves his wife, who’s recovering from a mastectomy. One of her mammaries is worth two of any other woman’s, he tells her over the phone. (Speaking of mammaries, check out how McDaniel can flex his pecs). Paulie loves his sister Penny (Rochelle Mikulich), a twittery country music singer he hasn’t seen in years. He loves her even though she’s taken a foreign lesbian lover (Selene Beretta) and has decided to give up her dreams of stardom.  Joey has always loved Penny even though the little nymphet Flossie is irresistible.  Petie, though wheelchair bound, still loves Mary and considers her marriage a sham. He even loves Paulie, even as they get into one of the most hilarious brawls I’ve ever seen. Petie’s mouthy gay nurse Stevie (a screamingly funny Nick Lawson)  loves Petie too -- platonically.

     Along with their difficult loves, these characters have dreams on the brink of being deferred.  All of them are poor. Paulie still wants to make it as a cage fighter, even though he’s broken down and thirty four.  Mary wants to start a family, but unless her husband can bring himself to make love to her that’s unlikely. And Petie, who was also a fighter, has lost the use of his legs (even though he does surprisingly well in the brawl).

     Ahonen directs his play with Dan Lockhart as his assistant.  The bright lighting design by Jeremy Pape contrasts with the tackiness of the furniture, the curtains, the abused walls, the half empty fridge provided by scenic designer Al Schatz. Schatz is also the fight choreographer, bless him. The sound design was by the Hernandez brothers, and Ricky Lang did the costumes, which match the apartment’s inelegance. Kudos should go to make-up artist Lisa K. Hokans, who’s responsible for Paulie’s eternally battered face, and Penny’s look of eternal sunshine. Larry Cobra, once again, returns as spiritual advisor.

     Happy in the Poorhouse is another crazy triumph for the Amoralists. It’ll be at  Theatre 80 St. Marks till April 5
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