In a small church basement, seating fewer than fifty people, Bully takes us into the mind of a ten-year-old universe physicist.
He is Eugene-Michael Carter II, who is dealing with the sudden departure of his father, his mother’s emotional instability, his teacher’s lack of compassion and his best friend’s transformation into a bully. The only person Eugene has in his corner is an imaginary friend created in the image of Stephen Hawking.
Every aspect of the play is stripped to the bare minimum. During their hour on stage, the cast of two hang off the two scaffolding towers or the boxes on stage. There are no costume changes, and because of the limited cast, Alex Poch-Goldin appears as the mother, the teacher, the bully and Stephen Hawking.
And it’s the performances that make Bully worth watching. Stephen Guy-McGrath, who also co-wrote the play, is Eugene. He plays the troubled kid well, even mastering some acrobatics for scenes when he is attached to a harness to act out dream sequences of flying. But it’s Poch-Goldin who really shines, in all his multiple personalities. In one scene, as all Eugene’s fears play out in his head, Poch-Goldin rapidly and adeptly switches between all four of his personas to attack the ten-year-old boy.
If you’re familiar with quantum physics, this might be the perfect way to broaden your appreciation of the dramatic arts, but if you’re expecting a crash course in the theories of Stephen Hawking you’ll leave more muddled than enlightened. Unfortunately, such high-minded concepts might cause mainstream audiences to miss out on much of the depth in Bully’s message.
