Faster by Adam Rapp

Because I enjoyed Stone Cold Dead Serious so much, I decided to read some other plays Adam Rapp has written. I chose to read the play Faster. The play takes place in the city during one of the biggest heat waves the residents have ever encountered. The play focuses around three characters; Kitchin, Skram, and Stargyl.

All three are young men who live together in an abandoned basement, having been left by their parents, or otherwise. Kitchin, a some-what religious hip-hopper, seems to be the "brains of the operation", as he seems to disperse some of the chaos in their family unit. Skram is less level-headed, he brazenly speaks whatever comes to mind without censorship and manages to render the same lack of censorship with his actions. His character is more animalistic than human, which is all to apparent with the way he treats his younger brother, Stargyl. Stargyl is a sad character; he is a mute with limited mental stability, and while Kitchin seems to mother him the most, Stargyl's own brother berates and abuses him.

The interesting character dynamics here make an interesting beginning, but the show somewhat fell apart for me once the actual plotline kicked in. It turns out Kitchin and Skram have kidnapped a young girl, and are going to sell her to a man from Oswego. The young men anticipate to use the money for a car to get the three of them to New York and start new lives. However, the young girl ends up being somewhat of a martyr or a prophet, and when the man from Oswego arrives he reveals he is the devil himself. The show continues onwards with an apocalyptic feel, what with churches being burned down and swarms of flies. However the story seemed to fall flat. I was more interested in how the characters would react in the story rather than being captured by the story itself. I felt displaced.

While I know that as a woman, I couldn't play any of these roles, I was really drawn to Kitchin's character. If a production were to blind cast, I'd love to play that role. Kitchin was very down to earth, however he still had an edge.