John Krasinski (Photo: Jonny Cournoyer)

Angry Alan

By Deirdre Donovan

In Angry Alan, directed with clinical precision by Sam Gold, John Krasinski plays Roger, a 45 year-old man from the Midwest, teetering on the edge of crisis. Reeling from a divorce, a demotion, and a growing sense that the world no longer makes space for him, Roger finds solace-and danger-in an online movement that promises to explain it all.

Darkly comic and unsettling, Penelope Skinner's searingly satirical play charts Roger's drift into the comforting absolutism of online rhetoric, as he latches onto the teachings of a self-styled cultural guru named Alan who preaches male victimhood. Alan warns that modern men are floundering in a world ruled by the "Gynocracy" - a supposed female-dominated regime that blames them for everything - and Roger, desperate for clarity amid his personal chaos, eagerly embraces this worldview. He shares Alan's videos with his best friend, his ex-wife, and even his teenage son before testing the waters with his new girlfriend, Courtney.

Reportedly, the play draws inspiration from real-life figures like Angry Harry, a men's rights blogger who railed against a "gynocentric society" until his death in 2016, and Paul Elam, founder of the website A Voice for Men. Both helped shape the online ecosystem of grievance and gender resentment that Roger tumbles into.

John Krasinski (Photo: Jonny Cournoyer)

Although the rotating stage ensures that set changes happen seamlessly, Gold's use of a raked stage proves both practical and poetic. The incline improves sight lines, allowing even those seated farthest from the action to engage fully with the play's visual and emotional beats. It also enhances the impact of the set - designed by the Tony-nominated collective dots - which transforms a modest apartment into a visually dynamic space, replete with a sofa bed that folds out unpredictably, much like Roger's own unraveling.

This sloping is symbolic as well: Roger often stands at the bottom edge of the stage, physically and metaphorically lower than the world around him, a man literally and figuratively on the edge.

In one of the play's most intense scenes, Roger goes to the Men's Rights Conference in Detroit. Standing at the back of the conference room behind two supposed fellow attendees (they turn out to be a pair of cleverly designed dummies [props by Addison Heeren]) Roger shares the high and low points of the conference. The high point, of course, is that Alan is the keynote speaker; the low point, a woman journalist covering the event lashes out at him in the parking lot for having "sat in a room all day with a bunch of guys like you spewing hate and laughing at rape jokes."

In spite of Roger's blatant lapses of judgment as the story progresses - for example, he cancels his child support payment to buy a ticket to the Men's Rights Conference - he's a very sympathetic and likable character. It's easy to feel for him when he sadly reflects on how the relationship with his son Joe has deteriorated over the years; it's easy to identify with his frustration as a father: "I lose my job and I move away and I'm paying all this alimony but I don't see Joe except on weekends or holidays. And the older he gets, the more of a stranger he seems to become and then he stops visiting altogether and no-one will tell me why - so of course I blame myself. Right?"

John Krasinski (Photo: Jonny Cournoyer)

Krasinski, best known for his role as Jim Halpert in The Office, possesses a disarming charm and an everyman quality that translates well in live performance, though his professional stage work is limited compared to his film and television career.

Angry Alan is a new point of departure for feminist playwright Skinner. Skinner rose to prominence with several acclaimed stage works before penning Angry Alan, notably her debut one-woman play, F**ked (2008), followed by Eigengrau (2010) and The Village Bike (2011). Skinner brings a constellation of contemporary themes to Angry Alan, including masculinity in crisis, online radicalization, gender power dynamics, alienation and loneliness, and - perhaps most importantly - the search for meaning and belonging. While one of course hears Roger's voice in the play, Skinner's voice can be detected in its dark humor and incisive exploration of contemporary anxieties. 

No matter how you slice Angry Alan, it is a satisfying 85 minutes of theater. As the inaugural production of Studio Seaview, it begs the question, what next?

 

Angry Alan

At Studio Seaview, 305 W. 43^rd. St., Manhattan

For more information, visit www.studioseaview.com

Running time: 1 hour; 25 minutes with no intermission

Through August 3