Character Assassins explores what happens when a jaded theater critic with a pen as venomous as a cobra, squares off with a playwright who has reached the end of his creative rope and is now bound for vengeance. Simon Frank can make or break the career of any hapless playwright on a whim and the unfortunate victim this time is Jonathan Burns, who is already but one gasp away from drowning in self-pity and booze. After being briefly hailed as the new Arthur Miller for his first play, Jonathan is then subjected to a relentless barrage of negative reviews for all his subsequent sallies unto the stage, gradually driving him to the brink of self-destruction. Not one to proffer sympathy, Simon disavows all responsibility for the havoc that he causes in people's lives by casually providing the insight that "critics don’t close plays, producers do."
Character Assassins is a comic-thriller that has more twists and turns than the Colorado winding its way through the Grand Canyon. Amidst picked locks, doors torn from their hinges, police sirens, calls to 911, and a gun intriguingly placed in the middle of a room, Simon and Jonathan enact the archetypal battle between critic and writer. Audiences can experience the excitement of the fastest roller coaster in the world and reach 128 miles per hour of frenetic mayhem merely by taking their seat at New Jersey Rep for the 90 minute ride of Character Assassins.
Directed by Dana Benningfield, Character Assassins stars NJ Rep regular Warren Kelley as Simon Frank and newcomer Brad Fraizer as Jonathan Burns.
