Scott Caan's "Word Faithful"

I’ve had the privilege of seeing three of Scott Caan’s full length plays produced on stage and as I’ve come to expect, the latest, “Word Faithful,” is populated with characters struggling to find their place in the world both individually and romantically.

The play is predominantly devoted to Jake and Samantha, ex lovers who at the beginning of the play are both with other partners.  But from the moment we see Samantha applying last minute makeup in front of a mirror, adjusting the armor of her appearance, so to speak, as she prepares to let Jake into her apartment, and back into her life, we know that whatever is between the two of them is far from over.

It would have been easy, expected even, to make Jake and Samantha lighthearted and likeable characters. A madcap story of how these two zany people ultimately discover they’re made for each other. But this is why Caan’s writing packs an emotional punch. He never chooses the easy route.

Early on in the play, in an extremely unsettling sequence, Jake reveals a desire to smash his current girlfriend in the face to get her to shut up. This is followed by an expression of rage so deep (set off by the simple act of finding eggshells in the food she prepares for him) that he wants to kill her. He then goes on to describe how driving devolves into an internal argument with himself over whether or not to plunge his car headlong into a tree.

I think it would be fair to say that anger is culturally understood as a negative emotion, ugly in nature, confined to dark and demonized spaces. The inability to manage anger blamed for anything from road rage to mass shootings. But it is also impossible to speak about anger without considering the intersectionalities of gender, race and class and how these three things have to impact our interpretation.

Male rage, particularly white male rage, is often inseparable from an expression of entitlement and privilege, driven by a desperate need to assert both. That rage has all too often manifested itself in physical violence upon the bodies of women. It is physical abuse. It is rape. It is sexist, but it is also all too often homophobic for it is rooted in gender essentialism. Men not deemed “masculine” become targets of it too. The extreme is Eliot Rodger, killing seven people in a shooting spree in Santa Barbara earlier this year because he felt rejected by women. Or Marc Lepine who killed 14 women in 1989 in Canada because he hated feminists. But it also exists in every legislative attempt to remove women’s agency from decisions pertaining to their own bodies. To many women, male anger is terrifying and the avoidance of incurring it is a daily navigation.

Jake is fucked up, but not that fucked up that he doesn’t understand his abusive and suicidal impulses are deeply disturbed. Samantha tells him he sounds like a crazy person, but what Jake is expressing is far too normative to be dismissed as a fringe emotion. And while Jake is more than a little terrifying and off putting in that moment, his conscious awareness of what he’s saying, his sense of wrongness, is actually a step in the right direction. Because alongside the history of violence against women goes a history of society’s refusal to acknowledge it or do anything about it.

Samantha, however, shows no such control. After she and Jake sleep together and he tries to sneak out, she is enraged. She tells him flat out if he invokes the name of a friend to lie to her she will douse him with water and punch him in the face. And when he does, she follows through. But though Jake is angered by it, he does not punch her back. He does not mishandle her in any physical way. But he is quite rightfully upset at her actions and he calls her out. For all of Samantha’s reliance on self help seminars to teach her to tamp down her emotions, they can’t be contained. In fact, her anger is exacerbated by her attempts to stifle it and when it does finally surface, it is explosive. But where Jake truly seemed horrified by his violent urges, and upset at Samantha’s physical attack, Samantha herself seemed unfazed.

And that’s not a surprise. Culturally speaking, we don’t view female anger as dangerous. In the case of Jake and Samantha, Jake towers over her. At no point would you consider him to be in actual danger. And while male anger is often (rightfully) demonized, female anger is dismissed. It’s not taken seriously. It’s the stuff of mockery and jokes.

As Jake and Samantha demonstrate, anger and violence have become almost synonymous. Violence has become an extension of anger. And so anger has become a taboo emotion. One that is not utilized, but quashed.

But anger is also clarifying. Because while Samantha is wrong to strike out physically at Jake, her anger is justified. It is righteous. And it is her anger, ultimately, that strikes a chord with Jake and helps to change his behavior by the end of the play. And this is where issues of race, gender, and class are most relevant to the issue of anger. Because anger is often the voice of the oppressed. And to render anger unequivocally as wrong and dangerous and violent is an oppressive act in itself. In the face of a case like the police execution of Mike Brown, to keep calm and chill out is to be complicit in tyranny.

But if there’s anyone who would seem to understand the righteousness of anger, it’s Brian, the cuckolded lover who would appear to have the most justification to lose it. In fact, physical violence is exactly what Jake expects when Brian shows up at the apartment. Because history shows us that violence is how the fate of women gets decided:  Jake and Brian fight and winner gets the prize.

But there is no fight for two reasons. Jake runs away the second he opens the door, and as it turns out, Brian is better at the whole human being thing than either Jake or Samantha. While Brian is hurt, and rightfully upset, he never heaps guilt or shame upon Samantha. He never indicates that she owes him anything. Not for being nice to her. Not for loving her. He loves her regardless and he respects her choice, even when it’s not him.  While Jake simply expects physical violence to be the only choice when confronted by his “competition," Brian frames the incident through a different lens. Samantha’s own agency. To Brian, Samantha’s choice is the only thing that matters. Brian isn’t overcome with anger because in his mind, he never had a right to it in the first place.

(Please note that this is by no means a comprehensive discussion on anger and violence. These are merely the wanderings of my own thoughts as sparked by the content of the play.)

Random Comments and Observations

The entire play is hilariously funny.

The set design was gorgeous, the attention to detail enhancing the written words of the play. From all the decorative pithy boxes to the (I actually don’t know what they’re called) little soothing zen plant and sand that Mia Serafino kept using to show Samantha tamping down her emotions.

An enraged Mia Serafino is a thing of beauty. I will never get the image of her breaking the “Keep Calm and Chill Out” decorative box, tossing around all the little sticks from her zen plant, and throwing the sheet over her head in a fit. Serafino has a tremendous sense of timing and is a gifted physical actor.

I can’t even begin to describe the gloriousness of the mockery of male posturing that took place through a closed door between Jake and Brian. Seriously almost died laughing.

The way Jake kept calling Brian different names throughout the play, even to Brian himself, culminating in Samantha calling him by the wrong name. So. Fucking. Funny. I was in tears.

The donuts and coke hidden in the potted plant. OMG. Again. Tears.

Seriously felt so sorry for Brian when Samantha told him that while she loved him, she loved Jake more. Brian was awesome!

Loved Samantha reading Patti Smith’s “Kids” at the beginning of the fourth scene.

Loved the black and white photography they used in the set design for the fourth scene. Wondering if any of the pieces were Scott’s…

Mia Serafino, Danny Barclay, and Jim Nieb are the real deal. All three are gifted actors. The quality of work coming out of Playhouse West is truly stellar.

Going into a funny rom com and coming out talking about anger and how amazed you are at the lack of shaming heaped on Samantha. But that's Scott Caan for you. You're always going to walk out of his plays thinking a little bit harder about something.

Play Synopsis:

Scene One brings Jake back into Samantha’s life after a two year absence. She’s with Brian. He’s with Kim. Brian is a 37 year old horse trainer. Kim is a 19 year old who can’t cook. Neither Jake or Samantha is happy. Jake is pretty honest about that. Samantha is in deep denial. Samantha claims she called Jake to show him her brand new beautiful apartment (complete with “Peace” “Love” “Keep Calm and Chill Out” “Ride a Cowboy” decorative boxes), along with her brand new beautiful “self” formulated through Self Help books and Tony Robbins seminars. But Jake guesses that her real intention was to make herself feel better by seeing how fucked up he still is. The attraction between the two of them is undeniable, and the scene ends with the two of them making love on the living room floor.

Scene Two begins with Jake engaging in some serious gymnastics to wriggle his way out from under Samantha without waking her up. He’s just heading for the door when she catches him. And she loses her mind. She is absolutely furious that Jake would sneak out, leaving her to wake up alone with the future of her relationships with both Jake and Brian completely in doubt.  Samantha desperately tries to make sense of what happened, but ultimately, even though both of them are miserable and obviously still deeply in love with each other, Jake ends up leaving.

Scene Three takes place several days later and opens with Samantha packing. We quickly learn she is moving in with Brian and he’s on his way to help her take some boxes to his place. And that’s when Jake reappears. With a ring box. Samantha’s elation turns to rage when she opens the ring box only to find it empty. Samantha orders Jake to get out, but before she can get rid of him, Brian arrives. After some failed male posturing on Jake’s part, Jake finally leaves after Brian asks Samantha which man she wants to be with and she indicates Brian. However, after Samantha confesses she and Jake recently slept together, Brian finally gets her to admit that while she loves him and knows she should want to be with him, her love for Jake surpasses anything she’s ever felt before. Brian kisses her on the head and leaves.

Scene Four opens several months later. Samantha’s apartment has a new décor. Gone are the Self Help platitudes. In their place are several black and white photographs. Jake arrives. This time he called her. He tells her all the reasons they belong together, are stuck together, in fact, and once more produces the ring box. Which is still empty. Samantha orders him out, telling him words are intangible without something solid to hinge them on. Jake smiles. Reaches into his pocket and produces a ring. The happy couple kisses, even though the success of their relationship in the future is far from assured.