Slouch, Gorilla Tango Theatre

Monday night, I went to see Slouch, at Gorilla Tango Theatre. Its posting on the League of Chicago Theatres says this:

“Three unlikely friends on the lookout for their friend Larry. Is he a friend? A lover? Something in between? Join us for this dark comedy. It's Waiting for Godot meets The Rules of Attraction.”

I would say this:

Three friends or roommates or something are each having some kind of later-than-quarterlife crisis in which they each see their lives in the context of their relationships (or not) with this dude named Larry. Larry is a character-in-absentia, who may or may not ever show up, and seems to be a really successful professional as well as a self-absorbed ass.

If that was a lame summary that didn’t make sense, I will defend myself only by saying that the script was written in a narrator’s stream of consciousness that was spoken by all three of the characters.

Not at the same time, of course.

Part of the challenge is to determine what is “real” and what is imagined or perceived or remembered. Not that it really matters because what is imagined or perceived or remembered is real to the characters. But it seemed to me that the moral of the story is that if you are waiting around for someone else to make your existence more stable or exciting or vibrant or otherwise better..you really are missing something. So I liked it.

Full disclosure: My friend, John, plays Ritter in this show.  He refuses to engage in shameless online self-promotion, so I will tell you:

There is only one more performance – Monday, March 21 at 8pm. If you are in Chicago, you should go see it. You can get tickets here.