There’s more than one bug in Tracy Letts’ “Bug,” playing through Nov. 19 at Cygnet Theatre (6663 El Cajon Blvd. 619.337.1525 or www.cygnettheatre.com).
Whether the bugs are figments of drug-addled imaginations or part of a sinister, sci-fi plot lies in the eye of the beholder. Whether the play is darkly, hysterically funny or unbearable lies in the location of the beholder’s funny bone. Warning: do not take friends still fragile in their recovery. Bugs may be a recent memory and painful for them.
Addicted to cocaine and alcohol, Agnes (Robin Christ) is motel trash. Rail thin, she spends her days and nights doing lines and swilling vodka and Coke. Once under a restraining order, her ex-husband Jerry (played by Manny Fernandes) is a violent, recently released con who torments her throughout the play. Her girlfriend and co-worker is a butch lesbian (R.C. played by Monique Gaffney).
One night R.C. brings home a good-looking Gulf War veteran named Peter (John DeCarlo), whom she’s met at the bar where both women work. Oddly vulnerable and seemingly naïve, Peter takes one look at Agnes and the cocaine and decides to stay at the motel rather than go to a party with R.C.
After sleeping with Agnes and taking hits of both cocaine and vodka, Peter becomes infested with microscopic bugs. His explanation for their presence is as crazy as he appears, but soon Agnes is seeing them too. Viewers know why, especially former addicts, who are well acquainted with such creatures of delusion.
The in-extremis situation is funny, that is, until Dr. Sweet (Jim Chovick) shows up, throwing a monkey wrench into all former perceptions. There may, indeed, be bugs.
The production, which will be talked about for years to come, is excellent as directed by Cygnet artistic director Sean Murray, who also designed the realistic, seedy set. Eric Lotze’s lighting, George Ye’s sound and Veronica Murphy’s costumes are spot-on and so is the excellent and riveting ensemble.
They hated and loved the play in New York. Cygnet-goers will no doubt hate it and love it too. Regardless of its outright nudity, drug doing and the outrageous and downright aberrant behavior of all concerned, it is utterly fascinating.
A native of Tulsa, Letts has been a member of Steppenwolf Theatre since 2020. He is an actor as well as a playwright. His play “Man From Nebraska” was a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was named one of Time’s Best Plays of 2003. “Bug” received a 2005 Obie Award. “Bug” the film opens this coming December. An animated feature it ain’t.
And next, for a change of pace and perhaps in order to make friends again, Murray stages “It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play” adapted for the stage by Joe Landry. The seasonal gem plays Dec. 3 through 24.