As a playwright, you know you’re doing something right when the production of your work triggers angry theatergoers in Orange County to cancel their subscriptions. That’s what happened to Nicky Silver around 1995, when South Coast Rep offered the one-two punch of Silver’s Pterodactyls and Raised In Captivity. Silver—a pitchblack successor to Edward Albee—has a formula: family nightmares, destructive parents, gay son protagonist/antagonist, put-upon affiliate siblings.
In Silver’s THE LYONS, now onstage at The Road Theatre–Lankershim in North Hollywood, dad is dying in the hospital, and mom is asking him for advice on how to redecorate their living room, “even though I know you won’t live to see it.” Their estranged son takes self-destructive self-delusion to new depths, their daughter’s reaction to the first sign of stress is “I need to call my sponsor” . . . and the clock starts ticking. Saying anything more would be unfair.
The plays of Nicky Silver are rarely produced in Los Angeles, and any opportunity to see the work of this comic genius should be taken advantage of.
THE LYONS, through July 1.
THE ROAD THEATRE—LANKERSHIM, 5108 Lankershim Boulevard, North Hollywood
Nicky Silver.
Playwright Nicky Silver
Image credit: Alchetron