FRINGE REVIEW: YOU'LL HAVE HAD YOUR HOLE

One must wonder if Irvine Welsh, of Trainspotting fame, didn't write You'll Have Had Your Hole out of desire to see how much violence he could get away with onstage. It's not that the play is inherently bad, but the brutality seems to be the star of the show, and it makes for an evening of grand guignol that isn't very grand.

The plot revolves around two Scottish drug dealers/ hitmen who kidnap a third to torture to death. Chained to a wall, Dex is entirely at the mercy of his captors, who delight in mocking, beating, cutting, and otherwise humiliating him. And they do, for pretty much the entire play. The violence certainly creates some tension, and the chemistry among the three men is pretty strong, but the story in and of itself is rather weak. The strongest moments highlight the threat of violence, the passionate emotions that bind these characters together, the tension that always seems about to snap. And when it does, when Dex is brutalized physically, the moments are never as frightening as when the cruelty is threatened. If the violence remained unseen but perpetually threatened, we could be crawling out of our skins from the tension. Unfortunately, the tension breaks, and often.

As the kidnappers, Mac Brydon and Ian Pfister have a good chemistry together and great timing. They also do some very nice work with their Scottish accents, falling nicely into the rhythms of the brogue. Zack Calhoon doesn't fare so well with his accent, as Dex really doesn't get to do much but scream and curse. Thea McCartan is not terribly memorable as the young woman torn between two men, but that's more due to Mr. Welsh's poor characterization rather than her performance. Francis Kuzler's direction is tight and strong, keeping energy high and nicely contrasting the graphic violence with (some) scenes of genuine tenderness. But still, with so little plot and development, there's really not an awful lot to speak for this play except its very extremism. Oh, well. We'll always have Trainspotting.