The father’s last will lands among his sons like Eris’s apple of discord. They knew it would; despite describing the man as useless and lacking a mean bone in his body due to lacking any bones at all, they’d been avoiding opening it since leaving his funeral. Dad wasn’t a tyrant like Mom (Shariba Rivers), but he was a flake whom they feel varying degrees of guilt over not missing that much. It would be just like him to inflict more scars out of ignorant carelessness. And sure enough, he does. Oldest brother John (Eric Slater) and youngest brother Derek (Christopher Wayland Jones) are responsible and married with children. Yet a disproportionately large amount of money will be going to single, childless, troubled middle son Ryan (Esteban Andres Cruz), who is as baffled by this injustice as they are. He’s not sharing it, though.
Wryness and Warmth go Hand-in-Hand
The dysfunctional family in a property dispute is well-trodden territory in American drama, but playwright Steven Stafford provides something unique to this Midwest premiere: his biting sense of humor. Crucially, Stafford’s wit is not mean. Small Joke about Monsters treats all its characters with empathy for the difficult circumstance it puts them in, Mom included . But Stafford’s willingness to make the characters fully confront their flaws takes them to some very uncomfortable places, and not just because of the dark and explosive secrets that get revealed. Mom describes her current romantic relationship by saying that “life is just a series of days, nothing more, nothing less.” Her matter-of-fact nihilism gets big laughs from the audience, as well as some cringes.
