Smart barbed exchanges about sex and marriage between a restless 35-year-old mother and her 14-year-old son make for an attention-grabbing start to Gina Gionfriddo's provocative and unexpectedly funny, After Ashley, the sixth and last full-length play in this year's Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theater of Louisville.
As the uncomfortably personal scene ends between Ashley, the mother (Carla Harting), and Justin, the son (Jesse Hooker), who is home sick from school, the stage goes dark and attention gets another jolt. A panicked Justin is heard in a 911 call reporting that Ashley is in the basement and hurt - "there is blood everywhere" -- by a man who may still be in the house. Urged by the operator to leave the scene he screams, "I'm not leaving her! Jesus Christ! She's my mother!" Gionfriddo thus sets the stage for her trenchant satire on the cult of celebrity bestowed by media - for profit and ratings - on crime victims and perpetrators as it caters to and inflates morbid public curiosity bordering on obsession.
Three years later, Justin's father Alden (Stephen Barker Turner) has written a best seller called "After Ashley" about his wife's rape and murder and the impact it has had on the family and nation. He and Justin, now known as "the 911 boy," are being interviewed by unctuous host David Gavin (Frank X) on a TV talk show called "Profiles in Justice." Clear-headed Justin is appalled by the cynical use of his mother's rape and murder by a homeless, mentally disturbed man his father hired to do yard work. Justin blames the tragedy on his father, who revels in becoming a media star after being chosen by David to replace him as talk show host with a "woman's show" called "America After Ashley." David moves up and on to another new show focusing on sex crimes and featuring re-enactments. Justin, alone in a bar, insults and pushes away a college girl, Julie Bell (Sabrina Veroczi), who comes on to him He thinks she just wants to bask in the "911 kid's" celebrity (Someone has even put Justin's 911 tape into a widely played rap song.) He's proved mistaken, however, as the plot develops. The kicker comes when Justin follows through on information in his dead mother's journal about a sex cult she joined. That leads him to Roderick Lord (Jason Pugatch), a self-styled "guide in erotic exploration, who films all the sexual encounters he facilitates. Justin decides to use a tape of his mother's group sex participation to sabotage Alden and David's ambitious plan to establish "Ashley House," described by David as "the Canyon Ranch of women's shelters," with funds donated by a rich philanthropist.
The chaos that ensues is decidedly rewarding. No better "closure" (that word that victims and victimizers so glibly and so often feed back to media) could be asked. Marc Masterson's sharp direction heightens the suspense and humor in Gionfriddo's clever script. According to ATL, he took over after the theatre's associate director Timothy Douglas withdrew 10 days before the opening, citing creative differences with the playwright.
ATL apprentice Jesse Hooker is totally believable as young Justin, as is Sabrina Veroczi as the sympathetic Julie. His self-serving father Alden gets a finely etched portrayal from Stephen Barker Turner. Carla Harting in her brief moments as Ashley makes an indelible impression. Frank X's smarmy TV talk show host sounds at times like James Lipton of "Inside the Actor's Studio"; he's first-rate. So is the remarkable Jason Pugatch as sleazy Roderick Lord. In summary, a superb cast and a terrific play.
