There's a crossroads every raconteur faces when assembling a one-person show: Do you poke fun at other people's foibles, then suggest that we all retain a bit of the dork within? Or do you wisecrack at your own expense and depend on the audience to identify with your travails? Actor/writer David Dean Bottrell expertly negotiates the latter, explaining via vivid flashbacks how his rough edges were sheared away in the lathe of public approbation.
For many, life's most challenging moments appear in early adolescence, when no one knows quite what to do with these ungainly bodies, expanding minds, and raging hormones. That's the fertile field Bottrell tills in Teenage Wasteland: Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen — an interlaid path of reminiscences guaranteed to make you weep, groan, and laugh out loud. I caught the show at Dixon Place recently, and it's likely to return to a Manhattan venue TBA in the coming months.
In little more than an hour, Bottrell weaves tales of sexual awakening, loves won and lost, and plotting a course to adulthood that are uniquely his own but also universal to the human experience. Bottrell's narratives lurch between tender and traumatic as he recounts relatable moments (who didn't think getting a perm was a great idea in the '70s?) and the consequences of coloring outside the margins of peer expectations.
As a critic, I've been lucky to see many a one-man show, ranging from Quentin Crisp and Spalding Gray to David Sedaris and Hal Holbrook, whose Mark Twain Tonight was, for decades, an industry standard.
Bottrell carves out a niche unique among them. He puts himself on display at one unflattering life juncture after another, plumbing each for cause, purpose, and when possible, redemption. His monologues skitter across a comedic surface, but always land eventually at either self-awareness or greater compassion for the suffering of others. His delivery is wily, because there's never a whiff of sanctimony. In a simple sport coat, button-up, and jeans, he could be one of a zillion guys sitting on a barstool next to you. But beware, because behind his unassuming grin, aw-shucks appeal, and middle-American demeanor, there's a canny performer who will grab you by the heartstrings and bring you face to face with your own humanity.
