Theater Review / Red Speedo:

A surprising story with an exciting finish

By Joanna Brady

Just because the main character of this play spends 90 minutes on stage in a Speedo, don’t expect the play to be fluffy and trivial, like a Sandra Dee ‘60s beach flick. Or sexy, like a gay porn show. No, Red Speedo, playing at the Waterfront Playhouse from May 16 through June 1 is a serious drama, one that will keep you at the edge of your seat.

This compelling play, an Obie award winner by Lucas Hnath, enjoyed a successful run in New York, where it drew high praise. It delves into the bewildering commercial world of sports endorsements where someone like Ray, the main character, can hit the financial jackpot.

It’s no secret that a talented amateur athlete—even one with only a modicum of intellectual ability—can springboard his or her way to stardom, fame, and mucho dollars, morphing an Olympic medal into a bargaining chip. The characters in Red Speedo are fully aware of the power of this reverse alchemy and are determined to turn gold into paper. Green paper.

The play centers around Ray, played brilliantly by Cody Borah, a handsome swimmer on the eve of the Olympic trials. Simply put, he has it all. Though lacking in the I.Q. department, he’s still a hunk in a skimpy Speedo; he’s a powerful swimmer, well-coached, and is a cinch to be offered a lucrative deal with Speedo.

Ray has a domineering brother: Peter is a lawyer, who has helped Ray financially, and is itching to cash in on his bro’s success. As his de facto manager or handler, he plans to leave his law firm and start a sports management business, with Ray as his prized cash cow.

Peter is played by Ross Pipkin who recently starred as the monster in Young Frankenstein. In Red Speedo, he plays a different, unscrupulous kind of monster, willing to do anything and pay anything to cover things up.

Ray’s cherubic coach is played with enigmatic élan by Steve Miller, and Jessica Miano Kruel is excellent as Ray’s erstwhile sports therapist, the cynical love of his life who wants nothing more to do with him because of his brother’s treatment of her.

John McDonald brings a wealth of directing talent and experience to this drama, orchestrating some pretty astonishing acting. And who else but set wizard Michael Boyer could manage to include a mini swimming pool into the Waterfront’s stage so well?

What sets Red Speedo in motion is a scandal at the swim club where Ray trains: A cooler containing performance-enhancing drugs is found in the club refrigerator.

In this day and age, this is serious stuff. We don’t have to go back to the 1919 Black Sox scandal to be aware of the length people will go to win by cheating: Rosie Ruiz, the disqualified MTA-riding Boston Marathon runner; disgraced Olympic sprinter Ben Johnson; skater Tonya Harding whose grasping ambition caused her sizzling career to fizzle; and Tour de France ‘winner’ Lance Armstrong—who finally admitted what everyone in the cycling sport knew. Athletes still continue to try gaming the system.

In Red Speedo, Ray tells his coach that he heard the drugs belong to a fellow swimmer. Peter tries to get the coach to discard the drugs and hush it up in the interest of the team’s reputation and integrity.

The coach seems incorruptible. But is he? And what are all these athletes sacrificing when they takes drugs? The questions we must ask ourselves are, how much of performance is mental, and how much of winning is psychological??

I won’t reveal the final scene, but trust me—it’s unexpected and dramatic, ending with an exciting crescendo. We’re left shaken, with breath bated as the two brothers kick up sibling rivalry more than just a notch. Dave Bootle deserves a lot of credit for the choreography in this scene. And as for Borah and Pipkin? Wow.

What makes this play all the more relevant is not just that we’ve seen sports celebrities sink to cheating in real life in recent years, but that it’s a reflection of a broader lack of integrity we and our kids are subjected to every day on the six o’clock news.

Don’t miss Red Speedo! It’s riveting, well acted, and well worth seeing.

All performances are at 8:00. No intermission. For tickets, visit waterfrontplayhouse.org or call 305-294-5015.

(Joanna Brady is a local writer, author of the historical Key West novel, The Woman at the Light, published by St. Martin’s Press)

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