A group composed largely of former drama students at Los Angeles City College has gotten together again to put on a little-known play by Harold Pinter at the 2019 Hollywood Fringe Festival. Directed by Sam Grey, A Night Out is a wicked portrait of a mama’s boy, Albert (Troy Rossi), with a hidden dark side. Rossi does a masterful job of bringing Albert to life, a man who lives with his nattering, overbearing mother (Georgan George) and appears to be a dull, ordinary kind of guy, a clerk who is too brow-beaten and timid to ever raise his voice at the office. He also does not relate well to his co-workers, who look down on him as a dolt and a loner, someone unwilling to become “one of the boys.” So contemptuous and scornful of him are they that they turn on him at a company party and give him a rough time, insulting him mercilessly and even threatening him with violence. One of them, Gidney (Cyrus Palizban), finally belts him in the chops. It’s not until Albert goes to a bar, gets drunk, meets a hooker (Amy Kersten), and goes to her place, that his secret character comes out. To specify would be to reveal too much; suffice to say that Albert turns out to be more Jack the Ripper than Sad Sack. The 12-person cast, led by director Sam Grey, does a fine job in creating the Pinteresque world of A Night Out, a world shot through with menace and cruelty.
