Profane haberdashery

Bartlebones' muthahfuckin' hat

I attended Friday night's performance of The Motherfucker with the Hat at the Studio Theater. At turns hilarious, shocking and poignant, the play continues the season's string of really outstanding productions. The ensemble cast is tremendous and Drew Cortese manages to walk the delicate line of making a potentially unattractive character sympathetic in his portrayal of Jackie, the lead role, a low-life drug dealer recently released from jail.

This play could easily have resolved to little more than a self-indulgent exercise in Nuyorican shtreet cred, relying solely on hackneyed representations of urban life. All the elements are there; the stock drug dealer, the unhappy upscale hedonist couple, the strong-willed Puertorriqueña girlfriend from the neighborhood. But despite being made up largely of elements you might find in the average music video, with a plot line to match, Motherfucker works. Somehow Serge Seiden's production manages to create compelling, if somewhat unattractive characters, and tell a story that resonates beyond the stereotypical caricatures of poor druggies from the neighborhood or yuppie materialists to which it could have all too easily devolved. The characters are complex, the story is compelling, the acting is capable of bringing tears to your eyes. You should go see that shit, Motherfucker. Through March 24th.