Wet Track

By T.E. Kalem

THE TRIP BACK DOWN by JOHN BISHOP

Astonish me! Those two words should be inscribed over every playwright's desk. At the birth of drama, the ancient Greeks bodied forth the outrageous image of a man murdering his fa ther and marrying his mother. Doubtless, no one in the Athenian audience had performed those acts, but then, he or she had not come to the theater to see the people next door.

Despite an occasional scene that flares up with emotional violence and pain, The Trip Back Down is a play sadly lacking in astonishment. It repeats itself, it is predictable, and it is a soapy, sentimental bore. Bobby Horvath (John Cullum) is a middle-aging stock-car racer whose psyche is skidding on a wet track. His earlier dreams of flashing under the wire first in the Indianapolis 500 have now become the wearying nightmares of a perpetual loser. He has come home to Mansfield, Ohio, to recoup his losses, possibly by never racing again, but at least by making peace with the wife and daughter he deserted, the father he fought with and the town he despised for its conformist inertia. What follows is what the British critics call "the American barroom confessional play," in which the characters gorge beer and disgorge bathos. By play's end, nothing much has changed. Mansfield is still a place where worms do not turn, and Bobby is still a man who, despite his raging claim to independence, could scarcely command respect on two legs, let alone on four wheels. Supported by an admirable cast, John Cullum commands full respect and a role worthy of his talents.

T.E. Kalem

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.