The Wild Guys

Description

63 pages
$10.95
ISBN 0-921368-37-2
DDC C812'.54

Year

1994

Contributor

Reviewed by Stan Chung

Stan Chung teaches English at the College of New Caledonia in Prince
George, B.C.

Review

The first thing that strikes the reader about this delightful two-act
play is the level of comedy writing: the humor is bang-on, with its
gentle but deadly satire on the men’s movement, and more specifically,
the hilarious problems of four men on a “wildman” weekend. But sharp
and very current dialogue does not save the fact that the characters
remain sketched out at best, like those in an American sitcom—not that
that is necessarily an insult in this crowd-pleasing play, but the
reader wants more about what’s really at stake for these men. Beyond
the humor, the serious message seems unrealized: that men’s issues are
at best light comedy, not tragedy. Just how funny can a play be that
points out our willingness to laugh at four men who don’t know who
they are? From that perspective, The Wild Guys is as funny as it can be.

Citation

Wreggitt, Andrew, and Rebecca Shaw., “The Wild Guys,” Canadian Book Review Annual Online, accessed December 5, 2024, https://cbra.library.utoronto.ca/items/show/6541.