“Pounding Nails in the Floor with My Forehead” by Hundo4U Productions

Have you had enough of men? Have you had enough of anger? Have you had enough of angry men? Well, the men in Hundo4U Production’s Pounding Nails in the Floor with My Forehead have had enough of being angry and men too. Since you and the characters have something in common, don’t let this production slip past you! For a limited two-night engagement, Donterrio Johnson is taking the stage as all of the angry men in the Chicago premiere of Eric Bogosian’s one-man play, directed by Jon Dambacher. 

In the course of one evening, Johnson traveled through 12 different monologues, presenting 12 different men. They were all from different walks of life. Step right up, on the stage we had your baby boomers, your punk rockers from the 80s, and your hip hop artists from the 90s. But they all had one thing in common: they were all angry, specifically with the hand that had been dealt them by fate and society. Some felt shamed into saying no to everything to maintain what they have, and others said yes to everything because they didn’t believe in permanence. Some apologized for their behavior, and others blatantly kept making the same mistakes. No matter what they did on stage, exceptional direction and performance guaranteed that we need not make a decision as to whether or not to forgive them. They were not apologizing to be forgiven, but to be heard. We were not asked to forgive them; we were not even asked to like them, because at the end of the day what does that change? 

Armed with only a chair and a red bandana to transform from character to character, Johnson thrilled us with different interpretations of each contemporary man. Not only was every character specific and unique in their monologues, but also many of them were stories in which the narrator assumed the character in the story within the story, such as Bill Clinton or a friend of the character. So skilled of an actor was Johnson that when the monologues were being told to an unseen guest on stage, we could see the other person through his eyes. 

Cacophonous sound design by Carl Wahlstrom mixed popular tunes with all of the irksome white noises of life: beeps, screeches, construction, and dial tones. Upon an ensemble of small television sets, Zach Guyette’s video transitions threaded the monologues together like irritating (but effective) commercials. Just like when watching a beloved TV show, they seemed to take too long. The lights would fade too quickly on Johnson, and we would have to sit through a constant stream of ever changing media, never hearing anything of much substance. The inundation of media had me counting the seconds until Jackson’s quick change was done and I could be released from the torture of the media and return to the monologues which contained substance. 

Director Dambacher brilliantly steered Johnson, ricocheting him from wall to wall. Not all of the men were angry on the surface; some used humor to mask their indignation, and some didn’t even know that they were angry, they were so trapped by the web of tripe that society can spin. Dambacher crafted the ticking time bomb for the explosions intricately as the seething, slow burns. The linking factor of anger proved that whether someone is labeled a deadbeat by society or grills sirloins behind a white picket fence, internal fears and doubts cannot be assuaged. With a social atmosphere that is obsessed to excess with outside appearance, this production proves that the disconnect between our personal identity and our public identity will forever disconnect us from each other. 

Opening and press night was October 16th, and the only other performance is on October 30th at 7:30 pm at The Broadway, Pride Arts Center (4139 N. Broadway). The performance time is around 70 minutes with no intermission. Tickets are available at www.hundo4uproductions.com. Seating is general admission, and all tickets are $20. 

Highly Recommended 

Sophie Vitello