BE WHAT YOU EAT
nytheatre.com review by Leslie Bramm
August 15, 2002
Ron and Nancy are preparing for the family Thanksgiving feast. With the
help of Barbara Bush they create the menu de jour. Which in this case
features a well fattened Ron Jr., ironically named "Lucky". Kept in a
cage for months in advance and fed only barbiturates and the American
Ideal, Lucky is now ready for the slaughter. The plot is complicated
when said entrie realizes something’s gone afoul and he is to be the
main course. Such is this offering from Kitty Porn Productions, Be What
You Eat. A delicious, black comedy by James D’Entremont. D’Entremont seems to have cooked up those 12 dyspeptic years called the Reagan-Bush era and left us with a lot to digest. The food, the father, the cake, the cage, all become powerful symbols of a regime that literally devoured the poor and much of the world’s natural resources. It’s refreshing to see a play that sinks its teeth into a very recent and distasteful part of our history. The eating of the children for these Republicans is a tradition as well settled as football and bloating. The playwright rips off the oven mitts for this one and holds nothing back. The play is a timely offering, especially now, as a new Junior attempts to consume the world.
At spots the actors seemed to stumble with text that could be quite a mouthful, but director Russell M. Kaplan’s pacing moves the play along crisply, aided by Laurie Miller’s excellent fight direction. The settings by John Malinowski are lean, and the costumes of Sidney J. Shannon create a swell 1950s flavor. At an hour and twenty minutes, the play is a bit over stuffed, but if your tastes lean toward the biting and you’re tired of simple sweets, then let Be What You Eat spice up your FringeNYC palate.
