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Review: The Pain of My Belligerence at Playwrights Horizons
I almost always sit on the end of the row at the theater, as most reviewers will, just in case we want to get away quietly it’s a commotion free exit. But for The Pain of My Belligerence by playwright and lead actress Halley Feiffer I was seated smack dab in the middle. A great seat, from which I watched a tour de force of narcissistic and insanely unconscious destructive desire play out on the stage. An emotionally sadomasochistic dreamscape for two, or rather three. I hoped that the next two acts (without intermission) would not continue at the tight little table at a Japanese restaurant. I want to make it clear that this is a good and brave play but has some noticeable flaws. Watching this first act, however, was beginning to give me an anxiety attack since the characters are anti-functional without reservation. Diving right into a battle without any hope of surviving.
Cat is a writer who meets Guy when she arrives to interview his wife for New York Magazine. The married couple is co-owners of the restaurant of which I speak. Yuki played adroitly by Vanessa Kai is a self-made woman of tenacity. Ironically Cat and Guy are having their first act flirtathon at one of the restaurants for which he is the architect. Odd, since the staff has eyes. I guess they both don’t care at all. While he skates from one crazy remark to the next, she giggles…
