Friendly’s Fire
by John Patrick Bray
Guy Friendly has a problem. He’s left his cabin in Alaska for the first time in quite some time. He picks up a tourist for casual sex, but it goes terribly wrong as she turns out to be a tooth collector, sending him into a fevered dream that blends his memories of his deceased brother and his ex-wife with life-size Man-Man (not to He-Man) action figures manifesting all around the cabin. Luckily, his friend Todd has just entered when Friendly decides it’s time to get in the tub and head to the North Pole to have a reckoning with Santa, the Saint of Thieves. Friendly’s Fire is the story of friendship, demonstrating the lengths of what people will go through to preserve each other’s sanity.
- Cast Size: 4M 2W w/ doubling
- Running Time: 90+ minutes
- Royalty Rate: $75 per performance
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Good God, this play is such an inventive, multilayered, disturbing, beautiful, funny, horrifying work of art. Bray captures you right from the start, grabbing you by the throat, really, and never letting go. This is one of those plays I will read again and again, as there is so much to savor, and still see new details each time. Just wonderful.
I’m always ready for a great story when I read a John Patrick Bray play. And FRIENDLY’S FIRE is utterly captivating as each character is written with so much depth and complexity no matter if they’re human or beast or more. Also remarkable are the ways in which doubling occurs when characters manifest at key moments, providing directors and performers with so much to explore. A beautifully written story that resonates with the ways we suffer, the ways we heal, and the relationships that see us through.
The mind and what it goes through after trauma is a mystery trip, barely understood but still meaningful to the person dealing with its seemingly permanent companionship. In this inventive and stunningly well-crafted play, we hear, see, and feel what Guy Friendly carries with him when he’s triggered by the recollections. His imagination is on frantic overdrive, yet it all leads him to seek the answers and the peace and friendship he needs and deserves. Aside from the masterful lesson in how to craft a mesmerizing story, John Patrick Bray gives us someone to deeply care about.
This is a superb entry into the world of PTSD, where nightmares, memories, and figments of imagination become as real to the audience as they are to the soldier who was unable to save his brother after a helicopter crash during the Gulf War. This moving play needs to be read and produced. An eye-opening masterwork.
I needed to read something modern. Fresh. I got it. Bray plunges us into the mind of a damaged soldier and while so much of this story is just plain strange, it works. It all comes together. Guy Friendly may be hanging on by a thread, but we’re not; the audience will be fully engaged. We empathize with Guy Friendly through his delirium, flashbacks, visions, regrets for actions taken and not taken… I could see Wes Anderson Rushmore-like battle scenes on stage or really simple staging, as the imagery is there in the masterful dialogue. Bravo.
Review Friendly’s Fire.