Love Drunk on “The Drunken City”
Written by Anais Corrales
Photo by Colleen Mond
When a trio of 20-something best friends who have all recently become engaged head out on the town before their big day, it can only lead to trouble.
Written by Adam Brock—who also penned “The Receptionist” and has two Outer Critics Circle Award nominations under his belt—“The Drunken City” offers a sweet look at the familiar pre-wedding jitters story. The play originally debuted back in 2008 at the Playwrights Horizon Theater in New York.
In the play, Brock condenses the stress that underlies marital bliss as the characters stumble through a single evening of inebriated hijinks and heart to hearts.
“The Drunken City” appears to be another booze-driven spectacle of crass humor. Luckily, solid performances—most notably David Bahgat as Eddie and Bethany DeZelle as Marnie—reveal the heart and honesty that lies at the core of the play.
“City” is quite a modest work. It may not be a fresh perspective on the shape shifter we call love, but its charm lies in its realistic characters and honest screenplay.
Brock may not be saying anything profoundly new with “City,” and the plot falls into a sitcom-like trope we have all seen before, but the honesty conveyed through his screenplay earned his play a nomination for Outstanding Off-Broadway Play in 2007. The dramedy earns its laughs throughout the performance, but the shining moments are its thoughtful exchanges:
“Love is strange. You can fall in love with someone just like that.”
“Have you ever thought, I gotta get close to them. I gotta ask them a lot of questions.”
“The Drunken City” tips somewhere between light-hearted and ruefully intimate. The play flops between deep, somber asides from characters Linda and Bob to the tipsy bumblings of Marnie and Frank. Obviously, the city has its metaphorical implications, as Linda ominously tells us, “The city followed me home,” but the over exaggerated drunkenness tends to lag. The amusement eventually fades as the character’s true feelings begin to pour out. Thankfully, the cast at the Mondonaro Theater controls the petite stage with ease.
In the proverbial city, things take unexpected turns and not everything turns out the way it’s supposed to. But we move on and hope that love will find its way back to us.
