THEATER - "FRINGE 2006: Garbage Boy"

It's hard to distinguish Christopher Millis from all the garbage strewn across the stage. Given the lifeless delivery of his plotless piece, Garbage Boy, all that detritus of memory does about as much for the audience as the faintly sketched scenes (which is to say: not much). I don't mean to be overly harsh, but Millis, a hard-working poet, is out of his element, and his director, Ashley Lieberman, has done nothing to make him more comfortable in it. This one-man play fails at being personal and at being poetic; Millis has cut himself off from his strength. Onstage, he rambles, ambles, and fidgets. It's hard to watch. Given his soft voice, it's hard to hear, too.

It's a bit ironic that a man as solid as Millis winds up being so vapid onstage. The poet looks like a real tough guy, from chiseled arms to an intimidating baldness to his wisp of a goatee, a line that almost looks like a middle finger of hair across his chin. As the audience enters, Millis sits behind a typewriter, composing the poem that bookends the show. That piece is good, but, like the majority of scenes and narratives, it doesn't fit anything else. The central narrative is about Millis's search to uncover his family's secret history, but he draws only the dramatic thrust of a horrific accident--there's no feeling of resolution or connection.

To be fair, Lieberman is the theater professional. The dramatic failures lie with Millis, but given the lack of theatrical energy to compensate or balance out the evening . . . did Lieberman even show up for rehearsals? Was she counting on the author's natural eccentricities to make the night more "real"? Is it possible that she actually advised, condoned, and sanctioned the trivial bits of detail and poor blocking that only serve to illustrate how much Millis isn't an actor? Did she think that adding unnecessary sound effects would distract from those pressing problems? (In this, she was actually right. The sound effects are distracting. The sound effects are also now a pressing problem.)

For whatever reason Garbage Boy is still being performed--I can't imagine this as cathartic for anybody--I certainly hope they clean it up soon. Right now, it just stinks (pun intended).