Game Face

In this one act farce, LR Penn, who specializes in dysfunctional suburban families, spices up the action with enough drugs, sex, and violence to keep the audience titillated during the occasional interval between the abundant laughs and the surprising plot twists. In keeping with the traditions of the genre there is a healthy dose of adultery, slapstick, and mistaken identity, although the identities are not so much mistaken as actively misrepresented by the characters themselves. This is a play in which none of the characters seems capable of telling the truth, being themselves, or divulging their actual intentions. But what goes on in the dark eventually comes to light, and what emerges is the story of a family’s struggle to assume control of their own lives in the face of the nefarious manipulations of a bullying father, in a classic conflict between the quest for freedom, individuality, and fulfillment and an oppressive regime that is seeking to maintain the status quo.