On The Stage

A Very Fresh Look At Matt & Ben

Kevin Allardice
Mirror contributing writer

   According to the play Matt & Ben, the script for Good Will Hunting was heaven-sent. But whether or not you believe that, when it comes to suspending your disbelief, there are far larger questions.
For instance, the two central characters—Matt Damon and Ben Affleck—are played by women—Brenda Withers and Mindy Kaling, respectively. The play is set in 1995 in Boston. The two are still struggling actors, despite their recent star-turn roles in School Ties. They are also struggling screenwriters, in the midst of turning J.D. Salinger’s novel Catcher in the Rye into a screenplay (without the rights to it), when the script for Good Will Hunting, already bound and laminated by some Kinko’s in the sky, falls from heaven, or at least from the rafters.
The questions are inevitable. What is it? Where did it come from? And so forth. But the script does, after all, have their names on it. So why not take the gift from above and become instantly rich and famous?
Matt tries getting rid of it, arguing that it’s wrong to take credit for something they didn’t do. But it begins to haunt them — like the tell-tale heart. They both know it’s good – good enough to make them famous. But is it a gift from the muses or the devil?
Is the script falling out of the sky an ironic look at inspiration or plagiarism? The play never really answers the question, but from its opening lines in which Matt and Ben debate whether or not adapting Salinger’s Catcher (by copying the dialogue, line for line, out of the book) is ethical or not, to the question of whether or not they should take credit for and peddle a script they did not write, the play flirts with this notion of plagiarism.
However, it never quite commits itself to the complex issues it raises. Instead, it sticks to its premise and delivers an abundance of laughs—most of which are based on the ying and yang relationship of the two characters.
In Matt and Ben, Matt is uptight, controlling and goal-oriented, while Ben is laid back, not-so-bright and spends his free time “chillaxing”—a hybrid of chilling and relaxing which Ben, linguistic pioneer that he is, has introduced into the lexicon.
Indeed, some of the biggest laughs come at Mr. Affleck’s expense. He sits at the computer and has Matt read a scene from Catcher out loud, asking him to spell the harder words. And Kanling’s half-vacant expression is priceless.
Both actresses, in fact, give wonderful performances. I don’t know if I can say they are “dead on,” because the very nature of the play is over the top and skewed. But their performances are dead on portrayals of the people whom we have all suspected that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck really are. Like a Saturday Night Live sketch, it shows us celebrities the way we want to see them.
And they don’t stop at the two title characters. Kaling pulls double duty—and an impressively fast costume change—as Gwyneth Paltrow. And Withers does the same for a cameo by J.D. Salinger. Using Salinger and Catcher in the play is an interesting touch, and even though Matt & Ben is anything but subtle, there is the subtle irony that the two are trying to “adapt” a book by an author whose career, in an odd way, parallels their own. Salinger wrote one great novel—a classic coming of age yarn about being young and confused—and, unable to top it, he has disappeared into obscurity. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck wrote one great movie — a coming of age yarn about being young and confused—and, unable to top it, they have disappeared into celebrity.
It may be unfair, or even blasphemous, to compare Salinger with Matt and Ben, but when the patriarch of one-hit-wonders comes and visits Affleck in a pseudo-dream sequence to offer him advice, it is hard not to draw the comparison.
By the end of the play, the focus has turned slightly from parody to the friendship of the two characters. It’s an earnest attempt, but it sometimes feels awkward, as when a sitcom attempts melodrama. But, on the whole, the play never strays too far from its premise, and, thus, never really overcomes it either.
It’s a two-dimensional play that only flirts with depth. But it is still funny, entertaining, very smart, and, at only sixty minutes, doesn’t kill the joke by stretching it too far. In fact, it is worth the price of admission just to see the scene in which Kaling’s Affleck demonstrates his less-than-stellar acting chops, as he reads a scene from Good Will Hunting in a Cockney/German/ Swedish/French/I’m-not-sure-what/back-to-Cockney accent.
In addition to playing the title roles in Matt & Ben, Kaling and Withers wrote it, and director David Warren skillfully assisted them in making it all work.
Matt & Ben has been extended through the end of May and is playing at the Acme Comedy Theater, 135 N. La Brea. (866) 811-4111. www. MattandBen.com.