The Motherfucker with the Hat
Stageworks Theatre, 1120 E. Kennedy Blvd., West Bldg., Tampa.
Thursdays-Sundays through July 26. $30. stageworkstheatre.org.
Stageworks’ production of The Motherfucker with the Hat comedically, poignantly — and sometimes jarringly — draws audiences into a human trainwreck brought on by a collision of shitty circumstances and even shittier choices. Stephen Adly Guirgis’s visceral script perks up ears and fetches hearty laughs from those not offended by its clever vulgarities.
Nominated for a Best Play Tony in 2011, the urban drama/dark comedy centers on Jackie, a former drug dealer and alcoholic parolee (played superbly by Jesse Carolan-Rodriguez).
Striving to stay on the right track, Jackie returns home with flowers and convenience store goodies to announce that he’s finally gotten a job. When longtime girlfriend Veronica (Jessy Quinones) showers to freshen up, Jackie notices a stranger’s hat on the dresser. The discovery sets off a chain of events that tests Jackie’s will to stay clean and sober.
Jackie’s AA sponsor, Ralph (Joshua Goff in the role Chris Rock played on Broadway), and eccentric cousin Julio (Cornelio Aguilera), a fruit-juicing health nut who’s obedient to his wife and loyal to his cousin, try to keep Jackie from landing back in jail. Despite volatile setbacks and heartbreak, he survives, revealing moments of valor and restraint that set him apart from the rest of the cast.
Carolan-Rodriguez delivers a charismatic, sympathetic performance — he makes us believe in his protagonist. Quinones — a force of nature on stage, feisty, self-assured and emotional — does her best with a spottily written role. We learn through dialogue that Jackie’s boo is a functioning addict, but we are left wanting to see more of Quinones onstage to know who her Veronica really is. The few moments we do see between her and Carolan-Rodriguez reveal a mutual tenderness that has kept the young couple together despite their dysfunction. Like an addict trying to get a fix, theater junkies will crave more.
Onstage even less is Dana Barth Kovar, who gives a relatable take on Ralph’s fed-up wife, Victoria. She deals with a disappointing situation in the worst way possible — she gets hammered. Goff portrays sponsor Ralph with the required smug stoicism, and Aguilera steals scenes with his wide-eyed goofiness and “Van Damme” bravado. He’s a patron saint of healthy excess but balances it all out with a few beers; basically the most normal person in the play.
Karla Hartley’s direction is one of the biggest stars here. She swiftly choreographs the play’s often highly combative, physical moments, and elicits relatable performances from her cast.
Fraught with some inorganic wordiness, a few too many unlikely turns of events and shifts in character, Motherfucker is a muddled work but ultimately wins us over with its a noble intention: to point out that honor and staying true to oneself win out in the end. Each character in one instance or another is blinded by his or her own compulsions and selfish behavior. Thankfully, redemption is on the horizon — if not imminently.
All told, The Motherfucker with the Hat is a gratifying and sometimes therapeutic theater experience — especially if you’ve ever found yourself in the emotional crosshairs of an addict or otherwise broken individual.
This article appears in Jul 9-15, 2015.