The first character we meet in JC Augustin’s award-winning (“Best Play” in the Bi-lingual 2022 Frenzy Festival at El Barrio Art Space.) Whiskey River is “Jonathan” (Jay W. Walker), a middle-aged former “party boy” who now lives in a 4th floor walkup with a malfunctioning shared bathroom in a sketchy neighborhood.  Still handsome but weathered from too much “hard living”, Jonathan still turns the occasional trick to make enough money to survive. When we first meet this character, he is looking for a man named “Jose”. But who needs “Jose” when you can have… “Jameson”?!  Jameson (Miss Marie) appears seemingly out of thin air to offer some comfort (southern or otherwise) and compassion to the distressed Jonathan.  Dressed in his finest early 20th century fashion, this Jameson has a thick Irish brogue and a very “intoxicating” effect on Jonathan. As it turns out, Jameson is Jonathan’s most loyal companion, his confidante, and his occasional lover.  

The audience learns that Jonathan has other fears besides his dwindling opportunities to make money as the “lay for pay” business is slowly moving to more discreet venues in the outer boroughs or to “jerking and twerking” online. Jonathan’s biggest cause of anxiety is an imposing, spandex-clad, goggles-wearing thug named “Greggory”, AKA “3G”. As real as Jonathan believes 3G to be, the audience will occasionally wonder if “Gregg/3G” really exists– until, surely enough, the physical manifestation of 3G (T. Scott Lilly) appears to scare the hell out of both Jonathan and the audience.  What exactly does 3G want?  And… can Jameson save the day?

With its tight running time of 45 minutes and featuring a cast of only three characters, Whiskey River as no choice but to rely on its cast, setting, and playwright to make an impact. As for the cast, all three actors are excellent, offering their own mixes of humor, sympathy, and pathos.  Then, there’s the set. It can always be a challenge for set designers working in the worlds of off- and off-off-Broadway theater to maximize their given space.  However, the creative team behind Whiskey River doesn’t just “make the most” of their small stage; they go above and beyond to create an awe-inspiring set. True to the play’s central aesthetic, the artistic design (also courtesy of JC Augustin) is a blend of gritty realism and fantasy.  Lastly, there’s the playwright’s comedic yet provocative script.  Awash with symbolism and food for thought, it indeed packs a wallop.  Anyone who spent time in the heady and hedonistic gay subculture of 1990’s New York City will relate to the main character’s references to the era, where youth and good looks were often just commodities to be bartered with. Living for so long in a crowded city like New York, with its constant cacophony of noise and crowded streets, can also wear at anyone’s soul. In one provocative segment, one of the characters declares, “The city’s full of voices. There are ghosts and devils and all kinds of poisons. Spirits and phantasms roaming subway trains and lurking in bars and crossing bridges in the dead of night. Voices. They don’t lie. They’re screaming to be heard…” But anyone living in 2023’s America– regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation, or economic status– can relate to the explosion of AI, algorithms, virtual reality, and such phenomena as “digital footprints”.  We often feel like we are really living in the world of depicted in the novel 1984.  How many times have all of us quoted the worlds of a song from, ahem, 1984:  “I always feel like somebody’s watchin’ me!” 

The plot of Whiskey River plot unfolds like a slow journey inside a schizophrenic mind.  Just what is “real” and what is imagined in this play?  JC Augustin’s script isn’t so willing to give the audience an easy answer; those in attendance on the afternoon of Sunday, November 19th at El Barrio’s ArtSpace PS109 had to form their own interpretation.  Tennessee Williams’ oft redone but challenging The Two Character Play, as an example, keeps its audience in suspense until the very end to reveal itself as one long two-hour mindf**k.  Whiskey River, on the other hand, has a very different flow.  It keeps the audience wondering from the very first line of dialogue until the conclusion– and beyond…

Whiskey River is written and directed by JC Augustin and produced by Tortas y Tacones.  Stay posted for future show dates.  

(Photos by Brennan Cavanaugh,)