The Minutes Are Missing

It’s an interesting notion to think that audiences who loved Dirt Dogs’ stellar production of Tracy Letts’ play, Bug, last season will similarly be smitten with the company’s production of The Minutes, Letts’ 2017 effort and most recently produced play.

After all, Bug examines the clinically catchy phenomenon of paranoia as the trodden-upon spiral towards insanity. The Minutes is a 90-minute fictional small town council meeting told in real time. To quote Chandler Bing, could they be any more different?

Yes and no.

Place and space, they sure sound dissimilar. But both get chewy with a core pillar of Letts’ work –namely, realism that turns into something else entirely. A bit abstract, a bit other-realmy, certainly absurd to pointed effect. 

Where The Minutes ends up is a spoiler that will remain unnamed here, except to say it’s both political and personal. More specifically, it addresses how we conduct ourselves in politics and what kind of world we want to make for ourselves and others.

And it’s quite funny for most of its 90 minutes, right up until it unfortunately falls prey to preachy-ville.

The play begins as the newest member of Big Cherry’s city council, Mr. Peel (a wonderfully earnest Brock Huerter), returns to a meeting after a brief absence following his mother’s death. He’s eager to dig down into issues and effect positive change, much to the grumblings of most of his fellow council people.

Here Letts gives us a wonderful cast of oddball characters with crackling dialogue. Each one marvelously portrayed by this talented cast.

Head of the council, Mayor Superba (Trevor B. Cone) likes to hear himself officiate. Secretary Ms. Johnson (Jenna Morris Miller) is agitated and withholding. Country Club good old boys Mr. Assalone (Bill Giffen) and Mr. Breeding (John Raley) may not be smart but they’re used to being heeded. Decades-long member Ms. Innes (Melissa J. Marek) speaks endlessly but will not listen and Mr. Oldfield (Ron Jones) can barely follow the plot to great hilarity. Mr. Hanratty (Jimmy Vollman) shows compassion, selfish as it may be. Mr. Blake (Todd Thigpen) drinks for most of the meeting. Ms. Matz (Malinda L. Beckham) drinks too and pops pills, leaving her a spacey, foggy, pliable mess.

If you’ve ever had the displeasure of sitting through one of these gatherings (Letts watched hours and hours of council meeting archives), you’ll recognize the archetypes instantly and have a great many laughs at their expense.

All seems to be moving along fine for the Big Cherry elected officials – if you count endless discussion about parking spaces, unclaimed bicycles, accessible park fountains and the city’s heritage fair as political progress.

But throughout the proceedings, Mr. Peel simply can’t drop his concern about the absent minutes. Or his questions about what befell Mr. Carp. Try as Peel might to question both issues, no one on the council is talking. His suspicion grows as does the tension between the group. And yes, it does all blow up into something much bigger and surreal.

Kudos to director Curtis Barber for facilitating a smooth transition between the play’s two genres and gifting us with some genuinely hilarious scenes. If nothing else, everyone should see this show to witness a reenactment of the town’s hero battle mythology. Not since Monty Python’s coconut-banging horse hooves have we seen such a silly-good cavalry effect.

Problem is, neither the solid direction nor superlative acting can help the play from buying into its own importance in the end. Not that what Letts is saying about privilege, erasure, power and willful blindness is wrong. His message is more righteous and vital now than ever. But it lectures instead of lightly leading. Scolds instead of showing. Whiplashes instead of wading.

We may walk out agreeing with the point, but the power of it is like a battery left uncharged.

The Minutes did get notable acclaim, Pulitzer and Tony nominations no less. But even Letts himself knew that it just didn’t have the success or adoration of his other works. “I wrote a play about fascism and nobody came,” Letts has said.

But Dirt Dogs’ production gives us a reason to go. This is a company working its way through the playwright’s works and they do it superbly. So go, punch your Letts card and see a cast and director working at the top of their form. We promise it’s way better than any live council meeting you could ever see.

The Minutes continues through November 8 at MATCH, 3400 Main. For more information, visit dirtdogstheater.org. $35

The post The Minutes Are Missing appeared first on Houston Press.