Brett Andres' play within a play Our Fantasies Are Eating Us Alive!, produced by SANDRep, premiered for a brief run at The City comedy club in Manhattan last week and is now being presented, for another brief run, at The Secret Theatre in Long Island City.
The embittered Hazzard Dean (Mr. Andres) suspects his wife Sarah (Alice Bahlke) of having an affair. Sitting in a bar and staring out at nothing, wondering where it all could have gone wrong, he knows how ugly it's going to get if he confronts Sarah, but he makes the tough choice to do so, with the help of his best pal, the Xanax-popping Wilson (Sam Albertsen). His friend's help isn't very much of a comfort to Hazzard, save for Wilson's humming of the 1980's hit "Break My Stride" by Matthew Wilder; he just keeps popping Xanax after Xanax. Hazzard's nerves are completely shot, but he slowly musters the courage to walk into his home for his confrontation with Sarah.
His suspicions are confirmed when he finds Sarah in the arms of the loutish Hoyt (Thom Brown III), who may or may not be connected to the mob. A fight breaks out between the two men, but it doesn't last long; Hoyt is shot dead with his own gun by Sarah. There's a dead body on the floor. Hazzard and Sarah's marriage is on the rocks. After the shooting, Wilson enters choking on a Xanax. There's so much to deal with, but first...they decide to have a cocktail?
Suddenly, a stagehand (Max Stein) enters and delivers drinks to the cast onstage as they mull over their options, which are few. The cast doesn't miss a beat. They take their drinks and continue pondering their dilemma.
A man sitting next to me broke into raucous laughter, and the rest of the audience followed suit right on his heels, getting in on the joke. It is a hilarious sequence and a subtle and perfectly placed notice to the audience that the play we are about to see is not real.
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