open cage ensemble - Phyro-Giants! by Michael Blieden

Phyro-Giants!

By Michael Blieden

Phyro-Giants! takes on marriage, fidelity, ghosts, God, and long-distance phone services during a dizzying dinner between four friends and strangers who reveal more than they bargained for.

In this snapshot of four troubled souls looking to fill their lives with an impossibly paradoxical mix of excitement and emotional safety, the backbiting gossip and self-revelatory banter take the comedy on some wicked turns as the evening progresses and the empty wine bottles multiply. Michael Blieden's shrewdly observant play Phyro-Giants! isn't about imaginary monsters, but rather the kind of conversations that occur when alcohol is the main social lubricant and red wine has loosened tongues.

And as inhibitions drop, secrets are revealed.

Set entirely at a table in a hip eatery, Phyro-Giants! is one long conversation about love, sex, and infidelity, all played out in real time.

The idea for Phyro-Giants! was born in New York while Mr. Blieden working as a correspondent for Comedy Central's The Daily Show. During dinner at a SoHo restaurant with a friend, the two men were joined by two female acquaintances. Over the next few hours and as many bottles of wine, the four young people dropped their attempts at small talk and revealed their innermost selves. Returning to his West Village apartment, Mr. Blieden scribbled down bits of the conversation. The play itself (a dramatized re-creation of the dinner) gestated for three years until Mr. Blieden moved to Los Angeles in 1999 and wrote it.

REVIEWS

"The wine-fueled conversation between four friends in Michael Blieden's play would have been unusually frank even if they've known one another for years: they progress from talk of ghosts and God to open admissions of fetishes and adultry. So the premise is a bit contrived, but the energy of Open Cage Ensemble's hour long production is infectious. Under the direction of Zachary Quarles; Robin Kelso, Chad Morris, Joel Ewing, and Danyel Read exude chemistry and honesty as the talky thirtysomethings. In a walk-on role as a wacky waitress, Kate Novak is also bold and charming. With the cast having so much fun, it's easy to ignore the convenient ease of all the "I never told anyone this before" revelations."

Highly Recommended by The Chicago Reader