“The Whistleblower” asks ‘what if we just told the truth about everything?’
The Whistleblower” is about a Hollywood TV writer whose bullshit detector goes off like a fire alarm at the conclusion of a successful pitch.
As his incredulous agent looks on in horror, Eli (Karl Miller) has some sort of epiphany about the path his life has taken, and he sets out on an immediate and ill-fated quest to right what he sees wrong about his life.
It’s not a new story, but playwright Itamar Moses advances the existential crisis one step further by taking the “whistleblower” idea from Eli’s stupid TV series concept and hanging it around his neck like a millstone. Not only is Eli possessed with the idea of righting his own ship, he also launches himself into the midst of his family and friends with the self-assured notion that 100 percent honesty is, indeed, the best policy.
And, in grim but hilarious style, he leaves a trail of destruction in his wake.
After flogging agent Dan (Landon G. Woodson) and producer Richard (Bill Christ) with his truth-telling, Eli dashes home to unceremoniously break up with Allison, his vapid TV-actress girlfriend (a shrill and funny Meredith Forlenza) — “You know it’d be over in a few weeks anyway” — and drives all night to share his delightful new persona with his parents and sister.
“The Whistleblower” has the air of a 24-hour bender to it, minus the alcohol. Eli never stops moving, hell-bent on his mission. We never know exactly what flips Eli’s switch when it does, but we have a pretty good idea writing crappy TV shows for a living has something to do with it. We also come to learn that, at least according to Eli, his life went off course 13 years back when he left his girlfriend Eleanor after they’d discovered she was pregnant. Now 37, Eli feels bad that his 24-year-old self pulled the supremely shitty move of leaving without ever calling, much less helping her through the situation.
Surely, she’ll be happy to hear his apology and explanation 13 years later?
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Several of the actors in this show play multiple characters, but as Eli’s jilted lover Eleanor, his meth-head sister Rebecca and his agent’s overworked assistant Sophie, Allison Jean White is a standout. She does Sophie as earnest and sweet, Eleanor as supremely incredulous and Rebecca as a strung-out liar. (I didn’t even realize it was the same actress until I consulted the program after the show.)
The scene where Eli appears out of nowhere as Eleanor is putting out the trash is fantastic — the kind of thing anyone who’s ever been dumped via silence might obsess over for months or years after the breakup. Eli is prepared to answer all question honestly, and Sophie lets him have it — then gets rid of the trash literally and figuratively.
Unfortunately for Eli, confession doesn’t absolve one of being a tremendous asshole. His quest for, I dunno — answers? redemption? — soon lands in the boat of childhood buddy Max (Ben Beckley), who claims to have reached some sort of blissful state alone with his thoughts (and, turns out, his grandparents’ money) in San Francisco Bay.
The surprise appearance from the stage floor of the full-sized boat surrounded in mist is a nice touch by director Oliver Butler and set designer Lisa M. Orzolek. Less surprising, given what we know about Eli’s inner circle, is that Max is an untreated paranoid schizophrenic whose bullshit philosophy almost makes Eli’s look sane by comparison.
Beckley has a ton of fun with Max, mixing up the crazy with moments of clarity — like when he stops Allison in mid-rant with praise for her TV character and dismay that the series is being canceled.
DCTC newcomer Karl Miller — who viewers of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” may recognize — is superb as Eli, fully owning the character’s earnestness and folly as he grows increasingly manic and disheveled. Playing both Eli’s father and the producer, Bill Christ is spot-on, as is the other DCTC regular Leslie O’Carroll as his clueless mom. Woodson has fun with the agent role but really shines as Eli’s other childhood friend Jed, who Eli busts in on looking for information about Eleanor. Doing double duty as the girlfriend Allison and Jed’s “ball-busting Medusa of a wife” Lisa, Meredith Forlenza does a remarkable job differentiating and having fun with both characters.
Presented without intermission, “The Whistleblower” is a fast 90 minutes with an abrupt but satisfying ending. It’s a tight, funny script by Moses, author of the Tony Award-winning musical “The Band’s Visit.”
The world premiere of “The Whisteblower” runs at the Denver Center Space Theater through March 10.
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