Serving and surviving significant time in a prison cell sadly doesn't always reform, change or redefine a criminal, but it definitely helped to make a terrific actor out of Joe Assadourian whose 12-year stint behind bars gave him time to develop and polish what appears to have been an innate talent for impersonation, differentiating body language and insinuating human behavior that is as often as appallingly funny as it also appropriately repelling.
In "The Bullpen," under the abetting direction of Richard Hoehler, Assadourian plays 18 characters including himself. Before being convicted of shooting a friend in the derriere during an argument, he is confined in the proverbial bullpen where he hopefully awaits his bail hearing. There, he has plenty of time to listen and interact with what seems to those of us safely in our seats as the dregs of humanity, that is excluding this husky lug who quickly takes us into his confidence but more humorously and vociferously into the personas of his inmates. . .of both sexes and of both sexual persuasions. Out of this experience comes his play, a compelling exercise of humanity in exile.
During the interminable waiting time, these savvy but unsavory types put on a mock trial in front of a mock judge. Assadourian makes no concessions or allowances for either the illiteracy of some or for the surprisingly brainy streetwise rhetoric of others, but each has a distinct voice, although some are hard to understand. He has the most fun playing the creepiest of the lot (I won't be a spoiler) but he also makes sure that he pokes fun at holes in the justice system as he takes on the roles of the defense and prosecuting attorneys who apparently know more that the real ones that he also confronts and portrays.
Assadourian may not have the handsomest face on the block, but he is ultimately ingratiating and is an invaluable and informed guide into an underworld that we are grateful to only observe from afar. The little black box that is the Players Theater, where The Bullpen keeps extending its successful run, is, one hopes, as close to a bullpen as most of us are likely to see.
