King Of Shadows

photo: Carel DiGrappa

There are four characters in Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's new drama, and I'd be hard pressed to tell you which one is the most irritating and fictional. One, the gay teen runaway ragamuffin who lives on his wits on the mean streets of San Francisco, is too precious to believe. Two, the do-gooder social worker whose liberal guilt blinds her to the dangers of giving the teen a place to sleep, is written to behave idiotically. Three, her teenage daughter who is over absolutely everything, spouts almost nothing but sarcasm and wisecracks as if she wandered into the play from a sitcom. Four, the social worker's boyfriend, whose only purpose is sounding board and plot device. (He's a cop; the nice word for this is "convenient").