Nothing good happens after midnight – unless it’s on-stage absurdity in Sean Grennan’s “Beer for Breakfast,” opening this weekend at Marathon Community Theatre.
When middle-aged buddies reunite for the first time in more than a decade for a guys’ weekend, the prototypical testosterone-packed mission is simple: eat chili, drink beer and talk about sports, sex and more sports – NOT “feelings.”
Though TJ (Steve Miller), Mark (Lee Lawson) and Richard (John Schaefer) are battling their own demons of divorce, unemployment and a stroke, the crew is determined to push forward with a night of throwback degeneracy – at least, until Jessie (Mary Stella), the wife of their missing buddy Adrian, shows up.
From then until the break of dawn, it’s an all-out battle of the sexes to see if the lady or gentlemen will reign supreme – and if the guys will retain the right to the dude-fest they had planned all along.
With six shows at Key West’s Waterfront Playhouse on his resume, familiar radio personality Miller joins a trio of main-stage MCT performers with multiple shows under their belts. It’s a level of experience that, by her own estimation, made the job easy for director Diane Dashevsky.
“The defining trait for this cast was their willingness to help each other through the rehearsal process,” she said. “They all know the drill; I didn’t have to give them a lot of notes, and when I did, it was all small stuff.”
The four cast members said they were able to strike a delicate balance of providing constructive criticism to one another, while still under the overall guidance of Dashevsky. But where time in other shows could be used to bring newer actors up to speed, the experience level allowed them to emphasize the more serious undercurrents of a story that would otherwise be “near farce.”
“There’s a switch that gives you the layers to it, and you find the layers to all the characters,” said Stella.
“Like a funny onion,” added Miller.
Though saying he’s no stranger to MCT’s stage is an understatement, Schaefer said the challenge in this particular role was unlike any he’d been saddled with before. While Richard is mentally sharp as ever, audiences will notice the character’s severe speech impediment and motor impairment – symptoms of his recent stroke – as soon as he walks through the door, and he’ll play the “cripple card” with his friends more than once.
“It was a good challenge, and also a fear of mine,” said Schaefer. “I certainly don’t want to offend anybody or anything like that.”
“When this play first premiered, there were a number of stroke victims in the audience,” Dashevsky said. “They approached the playwright afterwards and said, ‘Thank you so much for writing this play, because this shows people that stroke patients aren’t invalids. Their lives aren’t over, and you allowed that character to do everything the other guys did.’”
Asked for the most iconic moment in the show for audiences to look forward to, Miller wasted no breath: “I like the part where we talk about my penis.”
“It’s a ‘short’ discussion,” said Lawson.
“Beer for Breakfast” opens on Thursday, Nov. 14 and runs on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. through Dec. 7, with a 3 p.m. matinee on Sunday, Dec. 1. Tickets are $33 including fees and are available at marathontheater.org or by calling 305-743-0994. The show is rated “PG-13” for some adult language and situations.
