Let’s start with definitions. “Whistleblower” refers to someone who, at some personal risk, informs on institutional wrongdoing in order to spare the public from harm. This in no way describes Eli, the obnoxious protagonist of Itamar Moses’ backstage quasi-comedy, which is enjoying its Chicago premiere at Theater Wit under the direction of Jeremy Wechsler, the company’s artistic director. “The Insufferable Busybody” or perhaps “The Self-appointed Savior” would be closer to the work’s spirit of sanctimonious self-involvement masquerading as courageous truth-telling. At some point, while suffering through this muddled play with its intensely irritating main character, it occurred to me that the best title would be the wonderful German compound word “Backpfeifengesicht,” which translates as “a face in need of a punch.”
The play begins promisingly enough, as Eli (Ben Faigus) and his agent Dan (William Anthony Sebastian Rose II) meet with Hollywood producer Richard (Michael Kostroff, resplendent in an ultra-tacky Hawaiian shirt, courtesy of costumer designer Johan Gallardo). As Richard and Dan wordlessly and humorously signal to each other their growing discomfort, Eli pitches his idea, a convoluted, navel-gazing tale about a TV writer who has become sick of writing fictional stories about fantasy heroes, and instead decides to speak only hard, personal truths designed to free himself and others from the grip of life-limiting self-deceptions. Honesty will be his superpower.
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