John Krasinski plays Roger, a California resident who struggles with the changing roles of men in modern society, in Angry Alan, a new play written by Penelope Skinner, created with Don Mackay.
Actor John Krasinski first made a splash on the TV series The Office (2005–13), and after that with the creepy horror film A Quiet Place (2018) and its goosebump-laden sequels. He has a long film résumé as actor, writer and director, and lately he has boosted his credits as an action star in the Amazon Prime series Jack Ryan. Yet, although Krasinski appeared in the play Dry Powder with Hank Azaria and Claire Danes in 2017, film acting doesn’t necessarily point toward stage prowess. But the confidence with which Krasinski steps in front of an audience in the first moments of Angry Alan gives one hope that he’s an exception, and so it proves. His masterly performance opens Studio Seaview (formerly 2nd Stage) with a bang.
Krasinski plays Roger, a dairy manager at a Kroger in Walnut Creek, Calif., who has become disenchanted with the way modern men are being treated. He has stumbled on a social media personality named Angry Alan, who voices what Roger feels. In Penelope Skinner’s play (created with Don Mackay), Angry Alan holds that men are being victimized by women in a multitude of ways. Roger lives with Courtney, a budding feminist who studies art. His biggest gripe is that he rarely sees his son, Joe:
Whereas guys like me my wife walks out on me and takes my kid then I live through a global pandemic lose everything I’ve worked twenty years for and you know what? I haven’t cried in front of another human being since I was eight years old. Not even Courtney.
Krasinski holds the stage by himself for much of the play’s running time.
It’s notable that, in Skinner’s script, words are barely punctuated and read as stream-of-consciousness ramblings (with line breaks, not reproduced above, as if it were poetry). It’s up to Krasinski, along with director Sam Gold, to find the right pauses and emphases, and they do so with aplomb. The actor brings his immense charm to a character that in someone else’s hands might easily read as unsympathetic. But Roger deserves some sympathy. He’s feeling alienated:
Courtney goes down to the community college and sits for two hours in a hot room staring at a naked dude or gal. But if you ask me it’s not just about “art” because after class all the students “go for a coffee.” As a result of which Courtney now has a whole bunch of new buddies who don’t eat meat and wear hats indoors and T-shirts with slogans like “F-u-c-k the patriarchy” and “Mind Your Own Uterus.” And suddenly she starts lecturing me on politics. And grinding her own coffee beans. And eating kimchi.
The last line is a comic one, of course, an easy but funny dig at wokeness, and Krasinski draws on his expert comic timing to modulate the jokes embedded in Roger’s earnest and serious lamentations. As Roger prepares for a rare and unexpected visit from his son, Joe, to whom he has sent links to Angry Alan videos, he recounts his history with ex-wife Suzanne, Courtney, and Courtney’s firebrand feminist friend and art-class buddy Jen.
He challenges Courtney and Jen’s view of Picasso, who was “kind of a ‘sex offender,’” Roger notes. To his surprise, Jen says, “I agree, Roger, Picasso’s attitude to women was appalling. Not to mention his exploitative creative practices and cultural appropriation.” But the women seem to shrug off the contradictions, which irritates Roger, who is not clueless but genuinely baffled:
Because on the one hand you’ve got: “rape.” And on the other you’ve got: Fifty Shades of Gray. And us guys are here in the middle of it all going:WHAT DO YOU WANT? Do you want a sensitive guy? Or do you want a pervert with a torture chamber?
The scenic design collective dots has provided a comfortable suburban living room where much of the action takes place, as well as a witty representation of an Angry Alan conference that Roger attends. There are moments of disconnection, as the easygoing, put-upon hero is sucked into Alan’s videos; they are signaled by white noise (sound by Mikaal Sulaiman; video projection by Lucy Mackinnon ) overlaid with red lights (by Isabella Byrd).
Late in the play Joe (Ryan Colone) visits, and things don’t go as planned. While Roger’s particular situation may not be universal, it is compelling and probably not unique. “I think young men are right to be angry,” Roger says, linking his story to the current political landscape. Skinner and Krasinski have provided a balanced and painful portrait of a nice guy driven to distraction by the relationship between the sexes that he was brought up with, and his inability to navigate the resulting, sometimes hypocritical, social upheaval.
Penelope Skinner’s Angry Alan plays through Aug. 3 at Studio Seaview (305 W. 43rd St.). Performance times vary week to week. For tickets and more information, visit studioseaview.com.
