CRITIC’S PICK:"This is a horror show, unequivocally. But John J. Caswell Jr.’s 'Wet Brain,' at Playwrights Horizons, is also a very funny, pitch-black comedy about addiction and obligation, love and abandonment, and patterns of poisonous behavior lodged so deep they seem encoded."
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"The play lacks a clear takeaway; rather, it offers up an examination of love and loss...They probe the truth of how mental illness and addiction trickled into their generation, and, by the end, they look for a way to fix the leaky faucet."
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"This is a play that’s comfortable leaving a lot of gaping wounds bleeding while still being quite funny...I won’t spoil what’s coming, nor could I attempt to explain it, but it all provides a way for the play to reach out beyond the patterns these characters are trapped in, and see something hopeful out there in the stars."
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"...'Wet Brain' might be an imperfect play, it has vital lessons to offer us and is a compelling portrait of dysfunction."
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It turns trauma into spectacle, leaving its characters sadly underdeveloped. Kate Noll's astonishing eleventh-hour scenic coup -- an overhead, ultra-forced-perspective view of the family room -- and the eerily effective combination of Nick Hussong's projections and Tei Blow and John Gasper's sound design are far more vivid than anything in Caswell's script, despite its studiedly provocative manner. The trouble with Wet Brain is that it accumulates lists of traumas but never explores or resolves them. As a result, the family's tormented backstory never comes into focus.
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“Caswell seems to have some strange astral insights in mind about dynamics in fractured families...and dialogue that often strays from basic noun-verb construction, those insights just didn't come through for me. Dustin Wills, the director, seems more interested in arresting stage pictures then explaining what they mean.”
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“This very dry-brain accomplishment adds up to an early nominee for the year’s Best Set, with ‘Wet Brain’ getting an early start for the year’s Best Dysfunction Family Play.”
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Caswell’s dialogue for and wry observation of a family this dysfunctional is quite compelling. Scenes where two of the siblings verbally gang up on the third are fraught with humor as much as real-life situations. Communication is “at your own risk,” with each goading the other about their addictions, instigating full-on relapses at every turn. It is no secret this is a very personal piece for the author. The dedication to the play reads: ”For my father if he’s out there. And for my siblings.” It is a play as much about love and loss (and grief) as it is about the addictions that create chasms in a family. And it is a play that deep down reveals a family with a lot of heart.
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