written by Jez Butterworth
directed by Amy Rummenie
February 12 – 27, 2010
Red Eye Theater
Soho 1958. Pills, booze, and Teddy Boys. When teen heartthrob Silver Johnny hits the scene, the lower tier workers at a lower tier club think they’ve discovered the next big thing. But when their boss brings him to the attention of a local gangster, their luck quickly sours in a fast-paced mix of vulgarity and wit, distilled in the energy, humor, and music of 1950s London.
Cast
Production Team
| silver johnny | Will Lidke | director | Amy Rummenie |
| potts | Skyler Nowinski | set | Steve Kath |
| sweets | Joey Ford | costumes | Renata Shaffer-Gottshalk |
| skinny | Mark Benzel | lighting | Logan Jambik |
| baby | Tony Sarnicki | sound | Mike Hallenbeck |
| mickey | Ryan Parker Knox | props | Jennifer Probst |
| stage manager | Sarah Holmberg | ||
| technical director | Ron Albert | ||
| assistant director | Cody Braudt | ||
| dialect coach | Lucinda Holshue | ||
| firearm expert | Richard Eue | ||
| special effects | David Lind | ||
| David Pisa | |||
| dance choreographer | Tracy Vacura | ||
| fight choreographer | Brian Hesser | ||
| stage crew | David Pisa | ||
| stage crew | Aaron Sauer | ||
| stage crew | Whittney Streeter | ||
| stage crew | Per Wiger | ||
| photographer | Dan Norman |
Reviews
Jez Butterworth’s cranked-up tale of dirty deeds and double cross comes out of the gate like a rodeo bull: crazed, thrashing, nearly insensate. In 1958 London, a pair of rockers confabulate upstairs at the club where they play out their secondhand hopes of the high life… Amy Rummenie directs for Walking Shadow, eliciting sharp and manic performances as Butterworth’s script detours into a landscape of squishy sex, violence, domination, and the sort of moral compass one develops on a diet of controlled substances and bullshit. The second act has the feel of a prolonged hangover, full of betrayals, fragmentary conspiracies, and a no-exit tenor that is massively entertaining amid crisp dialogue and a cast that seems incapable of tiring. Astonishingly, it wasn’t until I walked outside that I realized I had devoted three hours of my life to this thing, with absolutely no regrets. Nasty fun works that way.
– Quinton Skinner, City Pages
Someone once joked that David Mamet’s typewriter should be checked for steroids. They probably want to check Jez Butterworth’s laptop while they’re at it. Butterworth is the author of Mojo, currently having its regional premiere courtesy of Walking Shadow Theatre Company in the Red Eye Theater. In many ways, Mojo is Glengarry Glen Ross with scrappy working class British accents—and a body count…
Mojo has a lot of things going for it, first and foremost the writing. It’s strong, goofy, darkly funny dialogue that bubbles up out of the mouths of every one of the characters in an almost never-ending torrent. The words create these people, rapidly unveiling personalities and priorities, strengths and weaknesses. The shifting allegiances and secrets uncovered all make their own peculiar sense because everything is grounded in the solid foundation of these words…
Balancing the playfulness of the language with a creeping sense of dread is a delicate business and director Amy Rummenie guides the proceedings with a very sure hand, just like she always does… For some really fine ensemble acting, well-directed and ably designed (I’m tempted to say “a better production than perhaps the script has any right to hope for”), Mojo is recommended.
– Matthew Everett, TC Daily Planet
