Philadelphia Theatre Company theater
'Theater' review: Colin Quinn’s 'Unconstitutional' is not a play
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
He stands on a stage, but that doesn't make it a play.
Is it a play? Colin Quinn’s “off-Broadway hit” Unconstitutional inherited the Philadelphia Theatre Company’s final slot of the season when Colman Domingo pulled his show, A Boy and His Soul, to take a film role. Like Quinn’s Long Story Short, hosted by PTC in 2011, Unconstitutional is the comedian’s rant about contemporary issues.
He stands on a stage, but that doesn’t make it a play.
The former Saturday Night Live newscaster fools us with a Spal-ding Gray-ish desk, just like the famous monologist (Swimming to Cambodia) employed — but he never sits at it, preferring to roam the stage’s edge like a caged hamster. Quinn is no Gray.
He talks a lot, but that doesn’t make it a play.
Quinn spews thoughts, few original or incisive, loosely inspired by our country’s four-page Constitution. Sometimes sections appear on an upstage screen, key words bolded, but his riffs often stray.
Quinn alludes to drinking a lot, asserting that the Constitution was written “during a four-month pub crawl” in Philadelphia (home crowd cheers!) and that it’s a “drunken, delusional premise” for government.
Other highlights: Ben Franklin is our “godfather,” with a vague nod to Marlon Brando (Quinn is no impressionist). Slavery still affects us. All presidents before JFK were ugly. Hunting is stupid.And how about those Kardashians?
In Sunday’s matinee, Quinn visibly ran out of steam, becoming more frenetic while saying less. He barely paused to breathe, often not finishing sentences and words, adding “you know” more and more. The announced 70-minute running time approached 90.
Is it a play? Hell, no. It’s an extended standup tenuously yoked to a theme, moderately entertaining, perhaps thought-provoking for people who don’t read the news and never watch Stewart or Colbert. The question matters, though, because Unconstitutional occupies one of our city’s nicest theater stages.
No, it’s not a play — and the sad fact is, there could have been a real play on this stage.
Through July 6, $49, Philadelphia Theatre Company at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre, 480 S. Broad St., 215-985-0420, philadelphiatheatrecompany.org
