Description: Two actors – Toby and Toby – are trapped in a production of WAITING FOR GODOT in Vermont.

First Produced: 2005
Date Added: 6/15/2011
Content Advisory: Strong language. Adult themes. 1 man-on-man kiss.
Keywords: Comedy  Meta  Characters are mostly young adults  Single Set  The Theatre  Surrealism/Absurdism  Mostly Male Characters  Small Cast Size 
2 Acts, 130 Minutes
0 Females, 2 Males

NOTE: Toby is fully protected by copyright law and is subject to royalty. All inquiries concerning production, publication, reprinting or use of this play in any form should be addressed to docpennino@gmail.com.

Original Production Information

Toby was first presented by Pilot House, as part of the New York International Fringe Festival in 2005 at 13th Street Repertory Theatre, with the following cast and credits:

Toby Donnelly (D): Timothy J. Cox
Toby McDonnell (M): Phillip Bettencourt

Director: Don Jordan
Assistant Director/Stage Manager: Michael Criscuolo
Set Consultant: Ryan Scott

Review by Leslie Bramm

Two actors, both named Toby, are cast in a production of Waiting for Godot in a regional theatre in Vermont. Playing to dwindling and even dying audiences, they soon discover that they are trapped in a show that they can never leave. Paranoia creeps in and before they know it, they start to become Godot's Vladimir and Estragon.Toby is most poignant when the author has the actors quoting from Beckett’s play. Phillip Bettencourt, as Toby, and Timothy J. Cox, also as Toby, both give solid performances. But I find that there are a couple of problematic aspects with this production.First, my sense is that Toby wants to parallel Godot, but it lacks the equivalent pathos. It is my understanding that Beckett’s nihilist masterpiece is a result of the horrors he witnessed during World War II. Anthony P. Pennino’s play doesn’t seem to come from any such grounded source. Meaning: Beckett wrote his play because he had to. Maybe for his own sanity? Pennino’s spoof comes across as just that. If his intention is to lampoon Godot (and I'm not sure I understand why he would want to do that), Toby is neither broad nor absurd enough to accomplish this. And also, it feels a bit long—a crisp, clean 60 minutes might serve the purpose better.Second, the direction. Don Jordan, assisted by Michael Criscuolo, doesn't seem to have found a suitable rhythm for this piece. They have instead allowed the actors to fall sometimes into distracting moments of mugging and scenery chewing. When you have just two characters in a single setting, then some emotional choreography is vital. I feel that the director(s) left the actors to do too much organic exploration. The relationship between the Tobys never develops past the dictates of the plot. This might have been an attempt to recreate Beckett’s characters, but Pennino’s text seems to be searching for further character development.All that said, the play has a sharp and well-developed sense of humor, not only in the banter exchanged by the two Tobys, but in the situations as well. A particularly enjoyable and well-acted bit is one in which Toby suggests to Toby they should be homosexual lovers in order to attract women. We recognize what's being said here is to stave off the sense of isolation and loneliness. There is also much inside joking about actors and actor’s foibles and egos. The average civilian might not get the inside humor, but since FringeNYC audiences tend to teem with theatre people the jokes don’t get lost. Particularly funny are Toby and Toby engaging in a Meisner/Strasberg-esque "Actor Prepares" moment. We see how silly and daring the actor’s job can be. And let’s be honest: there's nothing more fun than laughing at how actors struggle to be actors.By the end of the play Toby and Toby have fused completely with Vladimir and Estragon. We see the characters trapped in a perpetual state of Godot. Maybe when we examine our own meaningless, isolated, and repetitive lives, we find we are our own Tobys.

reviewed at the 2005 New York International Fringe Festival

Excerpt from Toby

D

Why wouldn’t Kelly even ask me to audition for her production of Six Degrees of Separation? Am I not a dynamo on stage? I ask you. I tell you why she didn’t cast me. The word. The word has gotten out. About me. About the guy dying during my stupid monologue. My stupid monologue about the dog. “A dog came in…A dog came in the kitchen/And stole a crust of bread/Then cook up with a ladle/And beat him until he was dead.” Then, from the audience, ugggghhhh. That kind of the thing gets around. Especially with the likes of Lucky and Pozzo to spread it. His monologues are lethal. Deadly. I’m a pariah among my peers. I won’t be able to show my face in the Irish Rogue ever again.