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Two hit men from Providence sit in their lawn chairs on a dock in the middle of the night, listening to a portable radio and drinking coffee. They’re talking about life, and the tricks that age has been playing on them lately. And completely ignoring their kidnap victim, tied inside a burlap sack at the end of the dock. Welcome to “Mafia on Prozac,” the latest offering from Newport’s Firehouse Theater. The play, written over ten years ago by Providence native Edward Allan Baker, is packed with local references that earn good recognition laughs. And the plot is one of those cynical only in Rhode Island things. Matt, the man inside the sack, has fallen in love with his own son’s 17-year-old girlfriend. As if that weren’t bad enough, the girl is the daughter of Senator Nero, one of the most powerful men in the General Assembly. When he learns about the affair, the Senator calls on a good friend who arranges for the two hit men, Jay and Tee, to make final arrangements for Matt. Except after they kidnap him from the parking lot of a Dunkin’ Donuts and drag him to the dock, Jay starts to have second thoughts. He’s been having dreams, and in them, he talks with Al Capone. Capone, he tells Tee, told him it was time for the mob to change its ways, which means maybe its time for Jay and Tee to change their ways too. While Jay and Tee debate the wisdom of the Capone dream, Matt-in-the-Sack demands that they get it over with and toss him off the dock. He deserves what he’s about to get, and he’s ready for it. But as the debate goes on, Matt becomes a mediator of sorts. The whole thing starts to feel like an episode of “The Sopranos” where Tony visits his psychiatrist, except there are two mob guys and the psychiatrist is wrapped in burlap and chained to a cinder block at the edge of a dock. Michael McGill and Dave Pizzelli are nicely cast as Tee, the hot-headed hit man, and Jay, the reflective dreamer. John McKenna gets many of the show’s big laughs as Matt – which is no small feat considering he spends all but the last five minutes of the show lying on the dock, wrapped in a sack with only his head poking out. “Mafia on Prozac” is an off-beat dark comedy sure to hit a familiar note. “Mafia on Prozac” is a one-act play. The second performance of the evening is an improvisational comedy show featuring the Firehouse’s Bit Players.
Firehouse Theater MAFIA ON PROZAC 4 Equality Park Place (Off Broadway) Newport, RI February 8 - March 2, 2008
(401) 849- 3473
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