Adam Rapp's Finer Noble Gases is a devastating portrayal of privileged young males who slide into the drug culture and lose all ambition and sense of reality while pursuing rock- band fame in New York's East Village. That may sound like a hackneyed film plot cobbled by Hollywood recyclers or a Rent ripoff minus music. But Rapp has transcended the genre with his cold-eyed scrutiny of pathetic slackers and his disgust at their wasted lives. Surely any thinking young person who sees this play would quickly decide to say no to drug taking and the zombie-like existence its characters lead.
The play (someone had to tell me that its didactically off-putting title relates to chemical elements that don't easily bond) is brilliantly performed as a kind of junkie vaudeville under the inventive direction of Michael John Garces. The physical comedy seems to defy gravity as talkative Chase, in a star turn by Dallas Roberts, helps move a couch by staying on it and navigating, in contorted movements, his three other band members, all now gone numbingly to seed. Yes, the audience laughs at these antics and at the disjointed conversation Chase has with Staples, whose brain lapses and infrequent attempts to rise from the couch where he and Chase sit stoned while staring at whatever is on a flickering TV set are memorably conveyed by Robert Beitzel. While these human beings mired in degradation inspire laughter, it's not the kind that's uplifting.
The play could be characterized as painfully funny, since the laughter it inspires is mixed with nervousness and embarrassment that fellow creatures could sink so low. Paul Owen's grungy set with newspapers and cans littering the floor, dirty dishes in the sink, a pyramid of discarded fast-food cartons, bowls full of drug capsules of various colors, and assorted band instruments is a neon nightmare of a place no sane person would choose to live. Speed (Ray Rizzo) spends most of the play writhing or catatonic on the floor, clad only in ratty underpants. When Lynch (Michael Shannon) kicks out the TV set, Chase figures Staples can use the fire escape to steal the set of a downstairs neighbor (Jeffrey Bean as Gray) if Chase can lure Gray up for a diversionary chat. Bean is a riot as the lonely, nerdy Gray who seems to be involved with some sinister conspiracy theorists and whose physical dexterity is also astounding. Late in the intermissionless play, a young girl named Dot (Alaina Mills) rollerblades into the apartment for reasons that eluded me but apparently represents a rather shaky hope.
Rapp's unflinching look at this lost and scary segment of society is a tremendous achievement. This second entry in the 26th annual Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theater of Louisville is highly recommended.
