wordplay: Orangepeelmoses.com
image: Michael Brosilow
Men and women are different. Captain Obvious strikes again. You’d have to be delusional to argue otherwise. Rarely are those differences analyzed by such a historical, evolutionary lens, but Rob Becker, the “guffaw hunter” behind Defending the Caveman, has done his homework. Anthropology, mythology, prehistory, psychology and sociology were the primary subjects Becker mined while giving birth to Caveman (“night school” with his wife Mariah was a prerequisite). Doing the “bookworm” paid off too. Caveman is apparently the longest running solo play in Broadway history (the competition isn’t exactly mammoth, but still…). Durango-raised Cody Lyman holds down the Neanderthal job in its current “former bison country” run. Aided only by a bare bones set, including Flinstones-style furniture, a reproduction of a curiously open to interpretation cave painting (bestiality, anyone?) and a pair of “magically obese” goddess depictions, along with a handful of props, namely a mock spear and a circle of “sacred underwear,” Lyman inhabits Becker’s text like a fossil inhabits rock. And although not all of us fit neatly into the modern gender stereotypes roasted by Caveman, there is still plenty of truth to rattle every funny bone in the house.
March 27th-April 20th @ Denver Civic Theatre
DefendingTheCaveman.com
DenverCivic.com
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