Alien Abduction and Sexual Abuse, or, Sometimes Disturbing is Good

Mysterious Skin. Rude Guerrilla Theater Company, Santa Ana, CA. 6/24/06.

Mysterious Skin is a play by Prince Gomolvilas, based on a novel by Scott Heim, which has also been turned into a movie. For a fairly explicit recounting of the film complete with screencaps, check out fourfour's review. In each case, the Mysterious Skin is about a young man who believes he was abducted by aliens when he was a child and a gay hustler with a troubled sexual history.

Not knowing the novel, I can only discuss my responses to the play as an independent work rather than as an intertext with other interpretations. And this production, directed by Dave Barton, was brutal, but sometimes brutal is a good thing. The production was sexually explicit, but sensitive to the issues being portrayed; it really dealt with sexual abuse in a complex and interesting manner rather than merely being a story of atrocities or ruined lives. The story is strange and emotionally charged, but quite powerful.

The cast of Rude Guerilla's Mysterious Skin were consistently strong in their interpretations of some very tough roles. Tim Zimmer as the nerdy Brian does an excellent job portraying the horrors of self-deception and subsequent self-discovery, although Brian's nerdiness and especially his oversized glasses seemed out-of-place on such an adorable boy. Keith Bennett as gay hustler Neil with a fetish for daddy figures was wonderfully rough and troubled. Michelle Trachtenberg, who is, ironically, not that Michelle Tractenberg (who played the role of Wendy in the film), was an exellent best friend/faghag, though I would have liked to see more of her character. All she did was whine at Neil for his dangerous behavior. The weirdest character in the play was Avalyn, played by Kerry Perdue. A woman who believes she was abducted by aliens, she paralelled Wendy's role as friend and confidant for Brian, including a sexual encounter that seems to come out of nowhere. Her character was strange and confusing, but that itself might be a sign of its honesty. Rick Kopps played all of the johns and father figures throughout the play, and in doing so he was incredibly memorable in his creepiness.

Overall, the production was just on the palatable side of horrifying, and Heim and Gomolvilas do an excellent job of addressing complex and terrible issues in a compelling way, that leaves you both disturbed and thinking. I'm sad that I didn't manage to write up this play in time to recommend it, but I will tell you that I'll be seeing whatever else Gomovilas has to offer, and that the production made me want to read the novel to see how the story is developed in that context as well.