Tom Cats Troupe Makes Subtle ‘Man’ Shine

Any director could easily miss the subtle nuances behind Steve Monroe’s “A Kind Man and a Good Lover,” without which Monroe’s first produced full-length play would come across as little more than your average psycho-killer thriller. Fortunately, director Thomas G. Waites and his cast demonstrate an acute affinity for Monroe’s challenging play, now at the Complex.

Despite the fact that Monroe’s deceptively predictable plot washes up exactly where we suspect it will, it is lifted above its established course by superb characterizations and a rushing undercurrent of very black comedy. Monroe’s bitter humor was effectively displayed in his uproarious one-act “The Confession” at the Hudson Theatre a couple of seasons back. That same humor vivifies his new suspense yarn.

Professional chauffeur George (Phil Parolisi) befriends Harry (Mark Collver), a new driver at his company who has recently moved to New York City with his wife, Sheila (Rebecca Nible). A nerd-like lonely guy who lived with his mother until she died a year ago, George is considered an irredeemable oddball by his fellow chauffeurs, including womanizing stud Frank (Hank Cheyne) and fusspot Kenny (Critt Davis), Frank’s adoring sidekick.

Unprepossessing but dangerously intense, George has become obsessed with a sometime prostitute (Joan Quinlan). When his “girlfriend” rejects his marriage proposal, George murders her. As if Harry didn’t have enough problems with his own faltering marriage, he now finds himself the target of George’s deadly possessiveness.

The play has some drawbacks. We need more retrospective sense of what has brought George to this psychotic pass. After all, George’s only reference to his mother seems genuinely tender. (Norman Bates aside, living with one’s mother into adulthood does not make madness inevitable.) Also, although Harry has a slight financial incentive for befriending George, his initial acceptance of George’s eccentricities seems incredible. More build is required in George’s progression from the offbeat to the psychopathic, and in Harry’s journey from small-town naivete to bitter knowledge.

However, this production bodes very well not only for Monroe’s playwriting career but also for the fledgling Tom Cats Theatre Company. The group’s first production, “The Madwoman of Chaillot,” was well-staged but flawed by occasionally amateurish acting.

“A Kind Man and a Good Lover” has no such weak links in its solid chain of superlative performances. In Parolisi’s standout turn, the troubled George remains strangely endearing throughout--and all the more chilling for that.

* “A Kind Man and a Good Lover,” the Complex, Theatre East, 6468 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends Aug. 10. $15. (213) 466-1767. Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes.