If John Cassavetes had been hired to do a movie remake of “The Honeymooners,” the results might have been something like the very funny (and very poignant) new play “Happy in the Poorhouse,” by Derek Ahonen, that opened over the weekend at Theatre 80 St. Marks.
“Poorhouse” is the follow-up to Ahonen’s “The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side,” a hit last year for The Amoralists, the company the writer-director formed four years ago with his actor pals James Kautz and Matthew Pilieci.
The Amoralists have built on their success last year with a season of three plays that they will be producing between now and the end of the year.
Like a latter day Group Theater, The Amoralists are determined to present rough and angry plays that deal with life in America right now. The company doesn’t deal in tidy morals or a sanitized view of life among people who are struggling to make the rent each month.
“Happy in the Poorhouse” is set in present day Brooklyn, where the life of would-be Mixed Martial Arts star Paulie “The Pug” (James Kautz, below right) appears to be in free fall.
Paulie is hitting a wall in his amateur bouts — he’s a bit too small and a bit too old — and fears his dreams of fame and fortune are vanishing. Still, he doesn’t want to accept the reality of his job as a bouncer in a local bar.
Paulie has married the girl of his dreams — Mary (Sarah Lemp, below left) — who happens to be the ex of his best friend Petie (William Apps). After many months of marriage, however, Paulie has not been able to have sex with his wife and it’s driving both of them crazy.
In the first scene, Mary is stressed out about her sexless relationship and her decision to throw a welcome-back-from-Afghanistan party for Petie, who is now confined to a wheelchair.
Kautz and Lemp make a terrific pair of battling spouses — with Paulie pounding holes in the wall out of sexual frustration and Mary failing in every attempt to ravish her husband. Their comic/romantic friction forms a strong foundation for the rich and exuberant cast of characters who soon begin pouring into the Coney Island apartment.
Ahonen views working class life with the same absence of condescension that was a hallmark of Cassavetes in films such as “A Woman Under the Influence.” The writer’s characters are just like you and me — except they don’t hide their frustrations with polite chit chat.
The magic of “Happy in the Poorhouse” is the way that the writer keeps introducing wonderful new characters — each with their own problems — who add to the chaos of Paulie and Mary’s lives in a believably funny way.
First there is Mary’s mailman brother, Joey (Matthew Pilieci), who lives with them — or, rather, they live with him, since he pays the rent.
Paulie’s sister Penny (Rochelle Mikulich) returns from Nashville for the party, with two big suprrises — she’s abandoning her dream of country music stardom and she arrives with her new German lesbian lover, Olga (Selene Beretta).
Two brothers who are would-be MMA agents, Sonny (Morton Matthews) and Sally (Mark Riccadonna), show up — to sign Paulie and to attack Joey for taking up with a 16-year-old relative, Flossie (Meghan Ritchie).
Act One ends with the arrival of wounded vet Petie and his male nurse Stevie (Nick Lawson) and the second half includes a visit by everyone’s muscle-bound pal Larry (Patrick McDaniel), who turns out to have a sinister secret agenda.
Ahonen keeps these people bouncing off each other in constantly surprising ways — and with crazy jokes that seem to bubble up from out of nowhere, just like they would at a disastrous party.
The writer-director’s love of actors is evident in every scene — from the fact that he created 11 juicy characters (no “supporting roles” here) to the way he has meshed their chaotic emotions into a coherent and deeply involving slice-of-life comedy.
(“Happy in the Poorhouse” is running through April 4 at Theatre 80 St. Marks. For more information, visit www.theamoralists.com.)
