A PLAY ON WORDS
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“‘Waiting for Godot’…‘Who’s on first?’…diverting and clever!”
“It goes great places!
As his two characters quibble endlessly about definitions and word choices, Dykstra sneaks in some incisive political commentary and arrives at conclusions both commonly held and rarely spoken…It's a grim play with a happy face, and when it really gets down to business, it makes an uncomfortable amount of sense.”
“This is a very funny play!
An astonishing sort-of stream-of-consciousness path that leads very purposefully to a place Dykstra intends to take us—a place where we're forced to confront the obfuscations and incendiariness of the words people in power hurl at us.”
“Corrosively funny!
A loony, lovable paean to absurdism.”
“Non-Stop Fun!” Flavorpill
“Fierce and Funny!”
"Waiting for Godot...
The Odd Couple...
Punch and Judy...
David Mamet...
Tom Stoppard
...classic Abbott and Costello
...vintage George Carlin
...the Ralph Kramden-Ed Norton playbook."
"It's a wild ride. Director Margarett Perry makes full use of the playground, bouncing her boys around the set. And Boyett and Dykstra deliver fast pitches, slow balls, line drives, bunts and all manner of base-stealing. Let's put it this way: if a great sports contest could be waged with words, Dykstra, Boyett and Perry would be in the majors."
"Nonstop Laughter!
Ferociously Witty!
A gripping experience
from start to finish."
Seinfeld meets Waiting for Godot in this ferociously witty play on, about and exploding with language. Rusty and Max have been friends since grade school and they’ve been arguing almost the entire time. Today they're scheming up something big. Brian Dykstra’s signature style crackles in this uproarious romp through backyard suburbia where two (slightly above average) Average Joes spar in a relentlessly fanatical pursuit of what is said, what is intended, and what is.
2 Men
Productions
New York Premiere
59E59 Theaters, Americas Off Broadway Festival, Margarett Perry, director
Regional Productions
The Kitchen Theatre Company, Margarett Perry, director ( visit)
Readings
The Bubble Lounge, NYC
The Lark Play Development Center
Press
"In the autological 'A Play on Words,' Dykstra distills his love of linguistics into a play about - and positively spilling over with - language. Best friends since high school, Max and Rusty have a backyard conversation that alternates paces quick and slow, reaches scales epic and trifling, and leafs through just about every aspect of language you can cover in that amount of time."
"Dykstra outdoes himself here. The rapidity and studied verbal miscues will remind old timers of classic Abbott and Costello routines, but the dissection of everyday expression sounds like vintage George Carlin."
"Very funny, both visually and verbally, which is ultimately the point. Long after we've forgotten the debate about the lures of language and the sham of semantics,
we'll feel good about having laughed so often, so hard."
all photos by David Burbank
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