TheaterWork’s “Speech and Debate” funny, fresh look at the high school experience

HARTFORD — There are times in “Speech and Debate” where you will likely LOL and even ROFL in this fresh and funny and eerily timely play at TheaterWorks.
LOL and ROTF are e-mail acronyms for “laugh out loud” and “roll on the floor laughing” as many know. In this play, set in a high school in conservative Salem, Oregon, three students with odd quirks and evolving personalities work out their differences and hypocrisies, sometimes thwarting and other times helping each other along the way.
Diwata, played by the energetic Jee Young Han, is a feisty and fierce diva who has her own pod-cast where she lambastes the high school drama teacher for not casting her in the high school play.
Carl Holder plays the 18-year-old student Howie who is new in town, has no friends, and flirts online with an older man who it turns out is the school’s drama teacher.
Howie is gay and comfortable with his sexual orientation, while Solomon, played by Ben Diskant, is an uptight, awkward, unhappy youth.
Solomon sums his observations of the human experience well when he says, “Sometimes the best part of being young is knowing that there are all these older people who wish they were me.”
What one hopes to see in any work of drama is a character’s self-revelation, transition, and growth. In this play by 28-year-old Stephen Karam, the characters don’t disappoint, each facing their own short-comings and with the help of the others, becoming more honest with themselves.
Perhaps because of the high school setting, this play feels like an R-rated modern version of the 1980’s TV sitcom “Saved by the Bell,” with a heavy emphasis on sexuality, abortion, and plenty of profanity, so it is absolutely not for younger kids.
These conversations are all around the proposed new debate team that Liwana is establishing to help build her acting career, as well as the straight/gay alliance that Howie is looking to start.
This play has an authentic and youthful perspective that intelligently looks at how difficult it is for teenagers to transition from childhood to the adult world.
The teacher and then the reporter are both played by Eva Kaminsky. She captures the exasperation of a teacher following the official school line, while as the reporter she has the smug self-serving drive that fits her “it’s all about me” motivation, especially when she is on National Public Radio plugging her new book about her interpretation of what causes youthful angst.
Art imitates life in “Speech and Debate” too, where the Republican anti-gay Salem mayor is rumored to be having elicit relationships with young men, with knowing laughs coming from the audience because of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford’s recent sex scandal.
Solomon says that people expect Democrats to behave badly, but the moral Republicans hold themselves to a higher standard from whence they regularly crash and burn.
What Solomon most objects to is the hypocrisy of it all. The mayor leads a fictional life that cuts against who he is, says Solomon, who is struggling with his own fiction.
The dialog is best when the conversation is most natural, with partial sentences, the way people really talk.
The characters aren’t all instantly likable, but are complex and interesting, and the choreography by John Carrafa and music adds life to the sometimes over-long dialog.

SPEECH AND DEBATE

3 Stars
Theater: TheaterWorks
Location: 233 Pearl St. Hartford.
Production: Written by Stephen Karam. Directed by Henry Wishcamper. Set designed by Luke Hegel-Cantarella. Costume designed by Jenny Mannis. Lighting designed by Matthew Richards. Sound designed by Bart Fasbender. Choreography by John Carrafa.
Running time: 95 minutes, no intermission
Show Times: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays — 8 p.m. Matinees on Saturdays and Sundays — 2:30 p.m. through July 26.
Tickets: $37, except Friday and Saturday nights, $47, and are unassigned. Center reserved seats $11 extra. $11 student rush tickets at showtime with valid ID (subject to availability). For tickets call 860-527-7838 or visit their website at www.theatreworks.org.
ACTOR…CHARACTER
Carl Holder … Howie
Ben Diskant … Solomon
Eva Kaminsky … Teacher/reporter
Jee Young Han … Diwata