Dragging a Dead Man, by Keith DeRenzo
Keith DeRenzo
Running Time: 1 hr
Dragging a Dead Man is the best metaphorical entrance to an extended, physics-flavored monologue on one man’s fears, insecurities, and excess emotional baggage using a man-sized dummy as a visual aid that Keith DeRenzo has written in Austin — ever.
Now, the script could use a little tweaking, could stand to have some of the repeated sections repeated fewer times (so they’d be a more powerful emphasis of the ironic coincidence of emotions and laws of motion, instead of devolving toward the merely, well, repetitive), and could use a minor touch-up in the Startling Juxtaposition department. But DeRenzo, who also performs the piece, has obviously labored long and lovingly to construct a story that is entertaining while steadfast in its look into the existential abyss.
He might choose to hire another performer, too, to bring a fiercer life to this monologue; for, while DeRenzo — clad all in black and dragging his anthro-form metaphor around the stage by way of illustration — does a serviceable job in relating his parables of airline travel, psychotherapy, and chiropractic manipulation, he lacks the riveting presence that some actors either have naturally or have somehow learned to generate, and that sort of presence seems required to pull Dead Man into the light of brilliance that it’s not too far from already. Since the use of an outside performer would also allow DeRenzo-the-writer more time to create other such marvels for the stage, that could be the best solution all-around. Friday, 2/1: 5pm; Sunday, 2/3: 10pm
by Wayne Alan Brenner
This article appears in February 1 • 2002.