‘The Dueling Critics’ head to ‘The Boys Room’

‘The Dueling Critics’ head to ‘The Boys Room’
Steve Key and Joe Dempsey in 'The Boys Room' at Victory Gardens Theater. Photo by Liz Lauren courtesy of Victory Gardens Theater
‘The Dueling Critics’ head to ‘The Boys Room’
Steve Key and Joe Dempsey in 'The Boys Room' at Victory Gardens Theater. Photo by Liz Lauren courtesy of Victory Gardens Theater

‘The Dueling Critics’ head to ‘The Boys Room’

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From Shakespeare’s Richard III to Albee’s George and Martha, the theater is crowded with some rather unlikeable protagonists. The Boys Room at Victory Gardens Theater adds another mean main man to the stage. Ron is a middle-aged dentist who’s just found out his wife has breast cancer. But instead of consoling her, or assuring her they’ll get through it together, he walks out, and moves back in with his mother. So is Ron an emotionally-stunted coward, or is there more to this story? And if he’s indeed as unlikeable as he sounds, how does a playwright create a character that’s at once loathsome and compelling?

To learn more about the production, Eight Forty-Eight talked to its likeable but nonetheless committed to sparring Dueling Critics, Jonathan Abarbanel and Kelly Kleiman.