Tom Keogh
\n<\/a>Special to The Seattle Times<\/p>\nThere\u2019s a startling phrase introduced in the final minutes of Joshua Rollins\u2019 gritty, rural-gothic \u201c25 Saints,\u201d a mere three words that turn an otherwise pulpy potboiler into a somewhat more perspicacious thriller.<\/p>\n
That phrase is \u201cthe American drug,\u201d a reference in Rollins\u2019 story to the methamphetamine production under way in the West Virginia cabin in the woods in \u201c25 Saints.\u201d It\u2019s uttered by the play\u2019s most compelling figure, a murderous yet oracular sheriff (a large performance by James Lapan) who likens the long hours, frenetic pace and low pay of meth manufacturing to decreasing expectations of a modern American middle class stuck in McDonald\u2019s and Wal-Mart jobs.<\/p>\n
If that\u2019s not fatalistic enough, Lapan\u2019s character \u2014 a small-town despot \u2014 sketches a vision of an environmentally and economically despoiled Appalachia as a forgotten world where every destiny circles destruction and corruption is currency.<\/p>\n
Destruction looms over the drama\u2019s three principals from the start. In a violent opening scene, in the Azeotrope production at ACT Theatre, Charlie (Tim Gouran), a noble sap paying off his missing brother\u2019s debt to drug lords by cooking meth for them, and his friend Tuck (Richard Nguyen Sloniker) beat a sheriff\u2019s deputy (fatally, they presume) after the latter sexually assaults Sammy (Libby Barnard).<\/p>\n
The incident hastens the trio\u2019s long-nurtured plans to escape from meth servitude, but a savvy lieutenant (Mary Murfin Bayley) in the illicit trade lets them know she\u2019s watching.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to muster compassion or even interest in these boxed-in losers, but empathy isn\u2019t the point of \u201c25 Saints.\u201d With their individual agendas, secrets, lies, gullibility and dashed hopes, Sammy, Charlie and Tuck drag one another to spectacular doom.<\/p>\n
The real essence of \u201c25 Saints\u201d is the sound of dreams splashing hard on rocks before being dragged out to sea. Among Rollins\u2019 near-monologues about wishful thinking, two or three (especially lovely ramblings by Mariel Neto\u2019s pizza-delivery girl) are particularly lyrical.<\/p>\n
(Note: \u201c25 Saints\u201d runs in repertory at ACT with an encore of Seattle theater company Azeotrope\u2019s well-received staging of \u201cRed Light Winter\u201d by Adam Rapp. Both plays are directed by Desdemona Chiang.)<\/p>\n
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