Christopher Durang doesn’t write nice, simple plays about ordinary folks. He writes outrageous and often absurd works, even winning a Tony for Best Play for 2013’s “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike.”
Now we have “Turning Off the Morning News,” a 2018 play about bipolar disorder, obliviousness, obtuseness and attempted murder, playing at OnStage Theatre.
Durang himself notes that he wrote the first draft about a married couple named Jimmy and Polly and their adopted son Timmy. Jimmy (Salomón Maya) is both bipolar and alcoholic and seems to spend most of his time plotting to kill himself and (preferably) a bunch of people at a mall.
Wife Polly (Carla Navarro), resplendent in a wildly red and white polka-dotted dress, is ditzy and prone to go off on tangents. Her mental state is questionable, but she cares deeply about shy 13-year-old Timmy (Jaden Guerrero), whose schoolmates call him Polly (partly because Polly sometimes calls him Polly, go figure).
Deciding that a whole play about this trio might not work, Durang added a “normal” couple next door: Clifford (Eddy Lukovic) and his friend (not wife) Salena (Ray-Anna Young). Clifford uses classical music to calm him. Salena notes that she found meeting neighbors difficult, so took to hanging out at the bus stop, where she met Rosalind (Heather Warren), who wears a pillowcase on her head for sun protection because she has had basal cell problems (necessitating surgery) on her head.
One day Jimmy tells Polly he’s either going to kill the family or strangers at the mall, and makes her pick which. She picks the strangers. We next see him in a pig’s head mask, going off to the mall.
You get the idea. This play is full of craziness (both clinical and Durang-ish). You’ll need to detach your brain from any need for logic (sometimes even meaning) and take it for what it is: a sometimes funny, sometimes confusing, sometimes horrifying piece intended to make you think about life and death. And laugh along the way.
Director Adam Parker emphasizes the funnier characters and lines, a good plan. Salomón Maya plays Jimmy and acts as projection designer. That second was a job in itself: he had to change the horrifying news images three times before opening, just to keep them timely.
Durang’s earlier pieces have won prizes. “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You” won an Obie in 1980; “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” won the Best Play Tony in 2013.
If “Turning Off the Morning News” isn’t up to that level (and it isn’t), give OnStage’s artistic director James Darvas props for putting an intriguing if oddball play on the stage. That’s what I like best about OnStage: you’ll often see fine productions of plays you’ve never seen before.
“Turning Off the Morning News” runs through June 19 at OnStage Playhouse, 291 Third Avenue, Chula Vista.
Shows Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m.
Tickets ($22-25) at 619-422-7787 or onstage playhouse.org
Masks are required inside the theater.
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