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Shuler Hensley plays a monstrously sorrowful man at Playwrights Horizons

BY MICHAEL SOMMERS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

OFF BROADWAY REVIEW

Shuler Hensley gives a painfully realistic – and poignant – performance as a 600-pound man who is sadly eating himself to death in “The Whale,” a new play that opened on Monday at Playwrights Horizons.

Every breath a rasping wheeze, every movement a struggle, nearly every sentence an apology, Charlie is a homebound behemoth who makes a living by teaching English composition online. So references to “Moby Dick” and Jonah pop up during the drama’s span of several days.

The middle-aged Charlie’s mortal hunger stems from the demise sometime earlier of his boyfriend, a lapsed Mormon who fatally wasted away after attending one last church service. Towards the play’s conclusion, Charlie and viewers alike finally learn what caused the lover to perish.

The morose drama, which centers on guilt-gorged Charlie’s relationship with his estranged daughter, ultimately doesn’t add up to shattering significance, but playwright Samuel D. Hunter successfully holds one’s interest for nearly two hours by introducing quirky characters.

In addition to the immensely sorrowful Charlie, viewers will meet the poor guy’s wonderfully sour teen daughter (Reyna De Courcy), his loyal best friend (Cassie Beck), his stormy former wife (Tasha Lawrence) and a squeaky-clean Mormon missionary (Cory Michael Smith) who really is not all that clean.

The exchanges between these conflicting characters are effectively written and very well acted under Davis McCallum’s steady yet sensitive direction. Set designer Mimi Lien provides a totally ratty living room that appears to be inside the belly of an abstract whale. Costume designer Jessica Pabst creates a scarily monstrous body suit for the linebacker-sized Hensley, whose portrayal of this kindly, pathetic soul is heartrending in its unflinching physical and emotional details.