638 ways to kill Castrodirected by Kathleen Weiss and written by Sebastian Ley, is a satire loosely based on the 2006 documentary. The documentary covered the absurd American attempts to kill Fidel Castro through Operation Mongoose. However, the play offered a fictional look into the lives of four Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents who were behind these assassination plots.
Trench (Sebastian Ley) leads the operation, which also includes the bumbling gadget maker Pope (Samuel Bronson) and the more experienced agent Goldwater (David Ley). Vandenberg (Patrick Lynn) is the newest addition to Operation Mongoose. He explains that he is there to keep their finances under control. In reality, Trench’s father is actively trying to disband the group. He sent Vandenberg to expose the operation’s ineffectiveness.
The dialogue in this play was really difficult. At times the conversations between Trench and Pope seemed stiff and fake. There was no natural flow of conversation. Many of the jokes didn’t land because they were almost rushed into the actors’ ears. This was most evident when the characters argued during the charades scene while acting out possible methods of murder. This scene paid off, however, with the absurd Fidel Castro ski mask that Trench imposed on Pope.
At the beginning of the play, it felt like the script wanted to immediately remind the audience that this was actually a comedy by cramming in as many jokes as possible. Unfortunately, they were pretty mediocre. Trench spilling his coffee at the beginning and blaming the janitor was a decent introduction to his character. However, the incident just wasn’t funny enough to drag on as long as it did.
The portrayal of Goldwater’s character was definitely the highlight of this play – his dry demeanor was brilliant. Goldwater’s nonchalant demeanor was in direct contrast to the overly anxious Pope. This difference made for some comical exchanges between the two, such as when Goldwater admitted to Pope that he would kill Jesus if it meant better dental care.
Pope’s character development ended on a satisfying note. He finally confronted Trench, who had bullied him for his many mistakes while working for Operation Mongoose. Pope mastered mind control and stopped Trench from fighting Vandenberg. However, Trench’s character development seemed to go nowhere, as he didn’t really recognize his wrongdoing toward Pope. The play ended with a dance scene between Trench and Castro, which, while funny (the Castro ski mask was used again), didn’t really provide any closure.
The staging of this play was perfect, especially during the committee meeting scene. The lighting reflected the intensity of the meeting. As each CIA agent struggled through their individual interrogation, the production team shone a blinding spotlight on them. In addition, the lighting during Pope’s nightmare scene and his LSD-induced mind control ritual created a perfectly distorted and hallucinatory feel.
My main problem with this play is the writing – everything dragged on longer than it needed to. Many of the jokes weren’t as sharp as they could have been because the characters babbled on longer than they needed to be. The play could have had an effective ending shortly after the committee interrogation scene. Instead, it slowly spiraled into an overall unsatisfying ending.
