With a solid team like writer Adam Bock and director Anne Kauffman at the helm, not to mention the gifted cast and notable scenic design, I was instantly impressed but ultimately disappointed by a new teaser called THE THUGS. More trailer than main attraction, this promising piece ends just as it seems to begin.

The thugs of THE THUGS are suggested everywhere. They are the corporate lawyers who defend asbestos manufacturers, they are the employers who feed workers mind numbing and unfulfilling tasks, they are the colleagues who become drunk with power, and those that abuse us in relationships, but they are also our unspoken fears, driven by gossip and innuendo, perhaps, one of them is even the weather. With all of this great material hanging out there, waiting to be expounded upon, a mere hint of it is presented in the shockingly short and incomplete play, THE THUGS.

I wanted to spend more time navigating the universe Adam Bock has created with THE THUGS, but this, apparently was not meant to be, and that is just too bad. Just as I was getting into the heads of Mercedes, Diane, Elaine, and the rest, the real thug of THE THUGS, brevity, came and stole them away.

- Kessa De Santis -

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