Much is being made now of Matt Damon’s starring as the Greek character Odysseus in the Homeric epic The Odyssey, but in the comedy Matt & Ben, a plot device derived from ancient Greek theater, the deus ex machina, plays a pivotal role as it did in tragedies by Aeschylus and Eumenides. In this one act play set in Ben Affleck’s (Spring Ferrara) Massachusetts apartment (the set is realistically designed by Ferrara, stage design by Max Downs), while jabbering away and eating junk food, the 23-ish year old feverishly if inanely is working on an adaptation of J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye with his best friend and partner in artistic crime, Matt Damon (Genevieve Lerner). This is a few years before they earned Oscars, and their only screen credit to date cited onstage is in 1992’s School Ties (although truth be told they both had played roles in a few other movies by 1995-ish, when Matt & Ben takes place).
Like in many Greek dramas, this play’s deus ex machina literally drops from above—but no, it is not a chariot as in Euripides’ Medea, but rather it comes in the form of a completed screenplay. The two friends take time out from their palling around and woeful attempt to adapt Salinger to read the script, which mysteriously bears their names on the title page as co-writers, and quickly realize that, EUREKA! Good Will Hunting would make for a great movie. (Indeed, it went on to score nine Academy Award nominations, including for Best Picture, and winning two Oscars, including in the Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen category.) Onstage, the pondering Damon and Affleck then struggle with how to proceed, what to do with this screenplay, which has appeared as if it is a gift of the gods? (And as we know, beware of Greeks bearing gifts…)
Originally written by Mindy Kaling and Brenda Withers (prior to Kaling’s first screen role in 2005’s The 40-Year-Old Virgin), Matt & Ben combines the age-old plot contrivance of a deus ex machina with the unconventional conventions of the Theater of the Absurd. In fact, Samuel Beckett’s 1953 absurdist masterpiece Waiting for Godot (which the dimwitted Ben hilariously mispronounces) is referenced in the dialogue, as a tip-off to the audience. To begin with, the real-life male characters are both played by women, as if they are men. Why?
During the after-party at the nearby tiki bar The CanTiki, Genevieve Lerner explained to me that the play was originally written and performed (by Kaling and Withers at the New York International Fringe Festival in 2002) that way, and it is written into the script that females portray the males. Ms. Lerner added that in addition to this being a response to the fact that most roles are written by and for men, it is also a reference to Shakespearean theater, when males would also play all the female roles.
The bickering, banter, and repartee between the Damon and Affleck characters is droll for about 30 minutes or so, but when Matt decides to hide something from Ben, the roughly one-hour comedy became a bit repetitive and tiresome. At this point in the play, I noticed Sherry Theatre staffers scurrying about the diminutive playhouse, and soon ticket buyers were informed that a member of the audience had taken sick and theatergoers were asked to vacate the space. While we were cooling our heels outside on Magnolia Blvd., I was wondering if this was part of the act until paramedics actually arrived and removed the stricken individual on a gurney.
At this point, in that great show biz tradition of “the show must go on,” Ms. Lerner and Ms. Ferrara adeptly, professionally picked up where they had left off. I had stuck around because I wanted to find out about whatever happened with Ben and Matt’s odyssey—would they ever become stars? Would Affleck ever woo and wed J. Lo? Inquiring minds want to know! In any case, I was glad that I hadn’t split, because there is indeed a splendid plot twist that I couldn’t see coming that was quite clever and rewarding (including in terms of Oscar gold).
During the two-hander performed sans intermission, Ms. Lerner and Ms. Ferrara portray other actual figures. The latter has lots of fun spoofing a pre-superstar Gwyneth Paltrow a few years before she struck Oscar gold for 1998’s Shakespeare in Love. I couldn’t help but feel that the play missed an opportunity to introduce an actual male thespian to portray the very female Paltrow, although Ms. Ferrara is indeed very funny, taking swipes at the pre-Goop Gwyneth.
For her part, Ms. Lerner rather broadly depicts J.D. Salinger, and while she has a comic touch, mocking a renowned writer rubbed this scribbler the wrong way. According to press notes, Ms. Lerner is “a graduate of SUNY Buffalo and Second City Conservatory, has trained at Upright Citizens Brigade and has acted on stages across the country and internationally. Spring Ferrara [has] appeared in many stage productions in Chicago and Los Angeles…” Playwright Mindy Kaling acted in The Office, The Mindy Project, and wrote The Sex Lives of College Girls et al. Brenda Withers’ other plays include Jordan, The Kritik, The Ding Dongs, Ubu Roar, Dindin, The Lodger, The Deer and the Antelope, and more.
Matt & Ben is a clever, goofy concoction mixing theatrical styles from ancient Greek to the Theater of the Absurd, well-directed by to da Max Downs. Co-written by a talent who went on to achieve enormous success herself about very gifted characters, among other things, this one-act two-hander has a sly take—or, perhaps, double take—on celebrityhood, fame, and the gods of creativity.
Presented by Please Like Us Productions, Matt & Ben runs on Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. through Sept. 5 at The Sherry Theatre, 11052 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood, CA 91601. For info and tickets, you can call (818)527-5669 or go here.
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