The play follows the adventures and of Mickey Sabbath, a stereotypical “dirty old man” and out-of-work puppeteer who prides himself on being manipulative and cruel, particularly to women.  He chooses each word and action for its shock value.  He sees his life as a big show and himself as the puppet master. The purpose of the play is to shock and entertain but at the expense of the misery of others.  Plot wise her pursues sex and sexual talk which is fueled by the death of a hook-up from cancer.  It is then the spirit of this mother encourages him to commit suicide rather than continue living such a depraved life.

It was a three person play – all done with great skill and detail.  The stagecraft was clever and oddly humorous in ways too uncomfortable to mention in this review.  Suicide became an over-riding theme at the end of the 100 compressed story based on a most successful novel – – (I cannot believe that it was a runner up for the 1996 Pulitzer Prize). 

As the central character John Turturro was obviously gifted and magnetic but it was just too uncomfortable to bear – nothing at the end of the play redeemed the 100 minutes spent mucking through all of this cruelty and obscenity.