By Harry Forbes
It’s a treat to watch John Krasinski deliver such a bravura performance in Penelope Skinner’s (mostly) one-man show about Roger, a disaffected former executive whose life has come unglued. He lost his high-ranking job at AT&T (a sore point he won’t let go), his wife left him, he’s estranged from his son, and he’s barely holding on to his current relationship.
Enter Angry Alan, an internet men’s rights guru whose inflammatory, self-proclaimed “manosphere” message proclaims that most men are good and have been unfairly diminished by the so-called gynocracy. Roger is captivated. Alan’s views—logical and irrefutably correct in Roger’s eyes—feel like a mirror to his own. Enthusiastically, he shares Alan’s videos with anyone who will listen.
Krasinski makes Roger’s good-natured, humorous persona so charming that Alan’s increasingly toxic ideology goes down disturbingly easy. Roger comes off as a laid-back, likable guy, which makes his descent all the more unsettling.
When he learns of an Angry Alan conference in Detroit, Roger impulsively pays the steep admission fee—along with a hefty “generous” donation—despite needing the money for his monthly child support payment.
Krasinski is virtuosic as he navigates Roger’s emotional shifts, ultimately revealing the darker undercurrents of his character with fearless precision.
Smartly directed by Sam Gold—his strongest New York work in recent memory, surpassing recent productions like Romeo + Juliet, An Enemy of the People, and Macbeth—the play, first produced in 2018 after development at the Aspen Fringe Festival, delivers a chillingly timely exploration of social media’s corrosive influence. Don Mackay, identified in the program as Skinner’s husband, is credited as co-creator.
The revolving set by dots vividly conjures Roger’s shared home with girlfriend Courtney and later, the Detroit conference venue. Qween Jean’s costumes, Isabella Byrd’s lighting, and Mikaal Sulaiman’s sound design are all top-tier.
The program lists five cameo performers, though four are seen only as projected photographs of people in Roger’s life.
This production also marks the debut of the newly restored former Second Stage space—the lounge area especially spiffy and inviting.
(Studio Seaview, 305 West 43rd Street; studioseaview.com; through Aug. 3)
Photo: Jonny Cournoyer – John Krasinski