Tim Venable’s hot-button-issue World Premiere two-hander The Beautiful People will have you thinking and talking about the gut-punching latest from Rogue Machine long after the stage has gone dark at Melrose’s Matrix Theatre.

It’s late one 1990s night night and 18-year-old “1” (Alex Neher) and his 17-year-old best friend “2” (Justin Preston) are holed up in the former’s basement bedroom doing what a couple of lonely teens do.

They play video games. They see who can chug a whole can of soda down without choking. They flip through the channels to check what’s on TV. They brag about sexual exploits that have probably only taken place in their heads.

An abundance of anti-gay slurs pepper palaver that may or may not reflect a homoerotic undercurrent in a friendship that has 1 repeatedly demeaning his supposed bestie with words like “loser,” “mama’s boy, and “little bitch,” but even when 2 threatens to leave, he always ends up coming back for more of the same.

Violent undercurrents abound.

The older friend’s “killing machine” dad is said to have offed hundreds of Vietnamese, burned villages to the ground, and smashed baby skulls to bits; the boys get into physical altercations that could easily lead to injuries; and they express adoration for metal groups like Nine Inch Nails and Smashing Pumpkins, movies like American History X and Natural Born Killers, and the bloodiest of video games.

Indeed, the play’s seemingly sweet title turns out the be the title of a Marilyn Manson song that has the shock rocker singing “There’s no time to discriminate. Hate every motherfucker that’s in your way.”

It took me until about half an hour into The Beautiful People to have my first inkling of where all this might be going, but Venable’s play still suggested enough possible outcomes to keep me guessing until _____.

I knew virtually nothing about The Beautiful People when I entered the Matrix, which is why I’d almost rather this review be read after the fact, but even if you’ve come this far, you’re still in for a one powerful ride, and at least one moment guaranteed to inspire gasps of sudden recognition.

Adding to the play’s impact is David Mauer’s truly immersive production design, one that has seats most audience members on three sides of 1’s basement and the rest on assorted sofas and beanbag chairs, and having a stairway lead all the way up to the unseen first-floor living room and kitchen makes it especially easy to believe we are in a windowless underground bedroom somewhere in middle America.

Still, as powerful as Venable’s writing is, The Beautiful People could not achieve maximum impact without pitch-perfect casting choices, and here too Rogue Machine scores a bullseye.

Neher and Preston are not only entirely believable as high schoolers, their performances are as fearless as performances get.

Under Guillermo Cienfuegos’s razor-sharp direction, Neher is frighteningly real (and really frightening) as a young man for whom bravado is the best defense against low self-esteem bolstered by the many ways he finds to put his slighter, more sensitive friend in his place.

Outstanding Featured Actor Scenie winner Preston nails “2” to heartbreaking perfection, and never more so that when he finally lets his guard down and reveals the excruciating pain lying within.

Video designer Michelle Hanzelova does remarkable work recreating late-‘90s TV, with one particularly stunning sound distortion courtesy of sound designer Christopher Moscatiello, whose upstairs effects are equally impressive, and Megahn Lewis’ just-right costumes and Jonathan Rider’s scarily real fight direction merit their own kudos as well.

The Beautiful People is produced by Rebecca Larsen and John Perrin Flynn. Teak Piegdon is assistant director. Noah Collins and Clay Hollander are understudies. Julia Masterson is assistant production designer. Ramón Vasquez is stage manager.

I went into The Beautiful People knowing only that it was about two teenage boys and that’s probably the best way to see it. I didn’t read any “trigger” alerts either, and I’m glad about that too. But even if you’ve read this entire review and seen those warnings, I guarantee that you too will leave The Beautiful People shaken and stunned.

Rogue Machine at the Matrix, 7657 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles.
www.roguemachinetheatre.com

–Steven Stanley
July 8, 2022
Photos: John Perrin Flynn

Tags: Los Angeles Theater Review, Matrix Theatre, Rogue Machine Theatre, Tim Venable