Photo courtesy of Capital Fringe

Not all conspiracy theorists deserve the persistent label of “crazy” but the eponymous monologuist of Roger (Not His Real Name) has neither the cool demeanor nor the put-together wardrobe of a Special Agent Mulder. Before opening the show with an out-of-context outburst of “She can’t come with us!” we see “Roger” (played with gleeful paranoia by Matthew Vaky) trembling in front of a graffiti-covered parking sign by a metal trashcan. After turning his back to the audience, seemingly to relieve himself, Roger faces the audience with an hilariously accusatory glare as he chomps on the banana that remains in his breast pocket throughout the remainder of the show. And within those two minutes, Roger has set the tempo ensuring that the crowd will spend the rest of the show laughing loudly while simultaneously cringing and saying some version of “hoo boy, here we go!”

That opening alone might not necessarily paint Roger as an unreliable source with questionable mental stability, but he gets there rather quickly between the emphatic gesturing, maniacal energy, and bizarre tangents. Of course Roger carries a bottle of liquor around in a brown paper bag. Of course he thinks he’s being followed. Of course he feels the need to test the audience by purposely claiming to have worked at NASA for four different lengths of time. Of course his theory about the HUBBLE telescope is extraordinarily important. Of course it is, you guys.

This descent into mental illness could be potentially disastrous since it’s obvious that this meandering speech is designed to keep the audience laughing, but Vaky stays committed to his wild-eyed persona while saying things that are over-the-top even for dedicated conspiracy theorists. He manages to drop references to events that are popular bait for conspiracies (the death of JFK, the death of Abraham Lincoln, and the intentions of J. Edgar Hoover) and tie them all together. He does all of this while dropping in little Easter eggs for the audience. For instance, in his world, Edward Snowden worked for NASA—not the NSA. Sound confusing? It is thoroughly confusing but don’t worry— he’ll hand you a flow chart and there are more entertaining pieces of comedic gold on there as well.

The poignant part about the entire speech is that it becomes apparent over the course of the play that Roger never got over the death of his childhood friend Brittany and that she, not the truth about the HUBBLE telescope, is really at the center of his theorizing. It brings Roger down to earth just a little bit more. That the play ends on a deep and insightful note after an hour of zig zagging and drinking would be the cheesiest possible way to end the play if the writing wasn’t just as much an intelligently written character study as a parody of conspiracy theorists. Roger’s monologue went in so many directions that a meaningful one was bound to come up eventually so the end feels logical, satisfying and unforced.

Roger (Not His Real Name) runs at the Tree House Lounge. Remaining performances are:

Saturday, July 18th at 9:00 p.m.
Sunday, July 19th at 9:35 p.m.
Saturday, July 25th at 8:30 p.m.
Sunday, July 26th at 1:45 p.m.

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