By Kevin Hylton
September 2, 2003
“Chillaxin” (translation: Somewhere between Chillin’ and Relaxin’ according to Affleck) With Matt And Ben:
A Review of the P.S. 122 Production of MATT AND BEN
It all starts somewhere. Granted, this may be the least intelligent opening line to a column to drip out of my pen. But you know what? I’m out of clever lines. And I’m just plain tired of turning them out. Let it be known. No longer will this column attempt to play with the big boys (and by the big boys I am referring of course to the THE NEW YORKER, the NEW YORK TIMES, or any periodical with “New York” in the title.) Honestly it was pointless to try and compete. This is a new beginning. A new low, if you will. No more bullshit. No more tricky weaving of simple-minded themes. Well, okay, perhaps from time to time I will weave in a simple-minded theme or two. But damn it, from now on I vow to stop referring to this collection of words as a “column” or an “article” or anything with such lofty goals and pretentious undertones. From now on this page will be known as “Kevin’s Jumbled Thoughts about Some Show.” True, it would be far easier to call it by the aforementioned “C-Word” or “A-Word.” But if you’re still reading this column (and secretly I hope you both still are), you’re not going anywhere. Enough said.
So as I was saying, it does all start somewhere. Any relationship, be it platonic friendship, coach and athlete, fluffer and porn star, boyfriend and girlfriend, girlfriend and girlfriend, boyfriend and boyfriend (you get the picture) begins. Sometimes it begins with pain, sometimes with pleasure, sometimes both. On occasion we can’t say how it began. Maybe it’s because we can’t recall how it started. Maybe we just don’t want to hurt others and so we repress the reasons why and how it started.
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MATT AND BEN, the off Broadway show playing at P.S. 122 (stands for Performance space 122 though it is the former New York Public School 122) tells us a fictionalized tale of how Matt Damon and Ben Affleck came to be friends and write their Oscar winning script to GOOD WILL HUNTING. Ok, I have no idea how fictionalized this account is in reality. Perhaps Lord Kevin Smith’s pals Benny Affleck or Matty Damon will send your faithful narrator a shout-out about the legitimacy of the specifics on how they met. And perhaps someday I will have a group of steady readers.
Some facts are known. Damon and Affleck were long-time school chums. Damon went to Harvard for a brief period (pre-fame) and dropped out. Damon and Affleck remain friends today. The two acted together (before either made it really big in multiple films, including everyone’s favorite Brandon Frasier film, SCHOOL TIES, and that View Askew picture about some woman named Amy).
What is not known is anything about how Affleck and Damon wrote the script. Were they good at collaborating? Were they open to each other’s ideas? Did they fight over the title role? Where did they get the story? Did they actually realize all of the movies they were stealing from as they wrote it? Did they care?
MATT AND BEN answers all of these questions. All of the answers are probably lies. All of them likely came from the minds of Mindy Kaling (Affleck) and Brenda Withers (Damon) who wrote and star in this production. But who cares if it’s all a lie? The truth is probably much more boring. I love thinking that Affleck is a moron and Damon a highly neurotic control freak who is both the most narcissistic and self-loathing individual you could find on the planet. I love this “reality” because it makes life so much more bearable if it’s true. And it makes a fantastic play.
MATT AND BEN is great camp. It makes fun of its characters, its subject, and itself so well that you lose track at times of exactly what you’re laughing at. All you know is you’re laughing and there’s a good chance you may fall on the floor. I don’t remember if I did. But I do have a bump on my head.
David Warren’s skilled direction enables the audience to actually forget that two of Hollywood’s most hunky men are being portrayed by a couple of women whose only resemblance to the actors is the color of their hair. Perhaps this is the strongest argument in favor of this play. I never thought once during the play about the gender of the characters. The brushstrokes Kaling and Withers used to paint these two characters are so fluid that you become engulfed in the relationship of the characters. The two are the ying and the yang. Well, not exactly the ying and yang. Both are highly narcissistic. Both think they are superior and inferior to the other. Both evoke passion from one another. They work because they fundamentally don’t work together. The two come from such different places and yet somehow you know they’re going to end up at the same destination. And why not? It makes a good story. Who really cares in the end where or how they started? What is interesting about this play, about any story are the ways the characters interact, the ways they beat each other into submission. It’s through the passion, the pain, the love, and the hurt that a life and a truly visionary story unfold. You know it’s nice to know how it started, but in the end it’s much more important to look forward to a nice ending than to worry about a dead past.
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Tickets to MATT AND BEN can be obtained through the show’s website at www.mattandben.com. The show has just been extended till September 8. Tickets cost $25 or $18 for students.
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