“Man Cave” at Whitefire Theatre Solofest 2020.
Written and Performed by Timothy Mooney.
One night only as part of the Solofest.
Whitefire Theatre, 13500 Ventura Blvd, Sherman Oaks
The Timothy Mooney Repertory Theatre Present “Man Cave” at Whitefire Theatre’s Solofest
“Man Cave”
We are about half way through the annual Solofest festival and you might be right in assuming I could be getting a little stir crazy. I have seen a lot of solo shows lately.
But that is the weird thing about solo shows and especially festivals as brilliantly curated as the Whitefire’s Solofest, you never know what special and profound and absolutely hilarious show you might see next!
“Man Cave,” written and performed by veteran solo artist Timothy Mooney, is one such spectacular discovery. Set 10 years in our future, post irreversible and deadly global heat-up, Timothy introduces us to quite possibly the last man on earth. Burrowed away in a purposefully constructed underground retreat he and his girlfriend spent years creating, he broadcasts into the ether. A daily diatribe on how we all got to this sad point and his own story and how his girlfriend didn’t make it in time. His hope is of course that he isn’t the last man standing, or rather crouched over a microphone eking out a pale existence on tinned food and recycled water.
Apart from the occasional pounding on his reinforced door, which, it seems, has not occurred for quite some time, he is alone. Free to ponder, rant, pine and plead. Timothy takes this beautifully constructed opportunity to remind us off our idiocy. Our lack of understanding, sometimes quite deliberate, our utterly pathetic acceptance of the status quo, driven by greed and political decrepitude.
He eloquently and with truly exceptional skill, monologues his way through this hour-long homage to humanity…propelled by anger, heartbreak and finally a little hope. The effect is brilliant. I love a good rant myself, but this play is absolute perfection.
If you don’t know much about global warming, impending doom and what can be done to prevent it, then you will learn a lot certainly. But this is not a documentary or a news piece. No, this feel genuinely authentic. This man is trapped in a cave, alone. He is bereft, having lost not just his girlfriend, but quite possibly the rest of the world. He has chosen not to answer the desperate poundings on his distant door, choosing instead to remain alive long enough to be rescued….possibly by aliens and this, quite believably, haunts him.
“Man Cave” is not your usual solofest fodder. We leave the show knowing only a little of the actual Timothy Mooney, but that was not the show’s purpose. “Man Cave” exists as some kind of Twilight Zonesque prophetic cautionary tale. An ode to man’s shocking narcism, even in the face of undeniable fact. It’s a mantra. A warning. A wildly entertaining foreboding of our possible future selves, hiding away in caves once more, only this millennia it’s with canned food, wifi and the abject horror of waiting for the AC to run silent, the cans to run out and the pounding to cease.
I absolutely loved this show, even if my blood was running a little cold by the end of it but I think that was the point.
I urge you to see “Man Cave” if you have the chance and you may, as Timothy Mooney seems to tour continuously with one or the other of his many, many soloshows. Thank heaven for that!
Tim Mooney, of the Timothy Mooney Repertory Theatre, tours the country with eight different one-man shows, including “Moliere than Thou,” “Lot o’ Shakespeare,” “Breakneck Hamlet” and “Breakneck Julius Caesar.” He’s the author of 17 popular new adaptations of the plays of Moliere, as well as the acting textbook, “Acting at the Speed of Life; Conquering Theatrical Style.” More on Tim is available at http://timmooneyrep.com
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