Photos by PATIL ARMENIAN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Tony
(Michael Perl) holds down Torch (Jaime
Hobert) as Mikey (John Thvedt) rips
Torch’s shoe off to check his ankle for heroin injection tracks.
"Riff Raff" premieres this weekend in 1330 Macgowan Hall.
By Aphrodite Manousos
Daily Bruin Contributor
Loyalty, betrayal, drugs and chaos pervade the theater
department’s new revival of Laurence Fishburne’s
controversial play “Riff Raff.”
Fourth-year theater student Mike Perl both directs and acts in
this three man show. He first became interested in the play because
of its setting in Brooklyn, N.Y. and was drawn in by its very
humanistic story.
“(Fishburne) writes with such an affection that there must
be things in this play he knows and experiences,” Perl said.
“There is a real love for the city, a love that pours out of
that community. People from Brooklyn love Brooklyn. And people who
visit Brooklyn love it too.”
Perl met Fishburne in a freak coincidence at the Westside
Pavilion. Although the encounter left Perl speechless, the two have
kept in touch via Fishburne’s management company. Perl is
hoping for an appearance from Fishburne at the performance, if
Fishburne’s schedule will allow.
“The man really wants this to be a very intense, very
challenging, rewarding exercise for actors,” Perl said.
“(Fishburne) gives you the questions, kind of leads you into
an answer, but then lets you figure it out for yourself.”
Perl explained that Fishburne wrote, produced and directed a
film called “Once in a Life,” based on this play, which
ran for a short time in theaters before being buried by its
production company. Perl feels that the film was pulled because of
intensity of the material.
Perl describes “Riff Raff” as a good human story
that challenges the audience with questions about how one reacts
when faced with life or death situations.
Fourth-year theater student John Thvedt plays Mikey, a drug
trafficker who has been selling drugs most of his life with his
best friend Tony, played by Perl. Mikey’s long lost
brother
 Mikey (John Thvedt) comforts Torch
(Jaime Hobert), who is suffering from heroin
withdrawal symptoms, in the play "Riff Raff." Torch, is played by
fourth-year theater student Jaime Hobert.
As the play opens, Tony and Mikey are in the midst of a drug
deal gone wrong. Mikey risks everything to protect his brother both
from outside forces and from Torch’s own heroin addiction.
Along with this, Mikey must deal with the guilt of his
sister’s heroin addiction and threats against his life by
angry drug dealers.
Directing this piece was a daunting task for Perl, but he still
found the experience enjoyable. Part of the fun for him was taking
his own feelings and life experiences and infusing them into the
characters in the play.
“You have to fill it with an emotional life and you have
to be, in my mind, as realistic as you can,” Perl said.
“But, in the end, we’re up there playing make believe
and hopefully entertaining and educating people at the same
time.”
Even though “Riff Raff” deals with polemical subject
matter, Perl did not enter theater just to stir up controversy.
“I’m not in the theater because I want to shock
people or piss people off,” Perl said. “I want to touch
people on a very basic, human level. I want to have people look up
on stage and have that moment where (they say), “˜I can relate
to that.'”
Perl hopes that people will ultimately take away with them an
understanding of the need to cherish and nurture one’s family
and friends.
“I want people walking out with that feeling of,
“˜Geez, I should tell my buddy he means a lot to
me,'” Perl said.
 Tony (Michael Perl) launches into a
monologue in a charged performance of "Riff Raff," a Laurence
Fishburne play.
Thvedt said he would like the audience to not focus on the
violence and swearing in the play but instead come away with a
feeling for the three characters’ struggles.
Thvedt feels his character tries to fulfill a fraternal role in
the play; Mikey has several love/hate relationships in life. For
example, he feels betrayed when Torch hides his heroin addiction
from him. Even so, Mikey is willing to lay down his life for a
brother that he has only known for a short time.
Thvedt said he had to work at figuring out the personality and
emotions of his character, Mikey.
“What I’ve done is personalize my deepest fears
within the deepest fears of my character. I bring in personal
relationships where I can. If any part of the character reminded me
of someone from the past, I brought it in.”
Thvedt’s Mikey might not be above selling drugs to make
money, but he harbors a deep anger over his brother’s
addiction, and guilt over his sister’s.
“It took a while to find because at first I saw him very
angry,” Thvedt said. “I was playing him outwardly
angry, until I realized I shouldn’t be playing him angry, I
should be angry at him.”
Thvedt sees his character as primarily motivated by the simple
need to survive. Mikey must escape so he can get out and live to
see another day.
Hobert’s character Torch is the most emotionally charged
of the three characters and displays the greatest dichotomy. Even
though he is so irrational that the other characters must
constantly keep him under control, he has a warm heart.
As part of an acting exercise to better understand his
character, Hobert tried to think of an animal that best represented
his character. He chose a diabetic rottweiler.
“My character, he’s the one with the temper, you
don’t want to piss him off,” Hobert said. “Torch
can be a great companion, but he can also be your worst
enemy.”
Initially, Hobert had some reservations about “Riff
Raff,” fearing that the play would not work because it did
not seem connected with the actors’ language or lifestyle. He
reconsidered his position once he realized that, even though one
has to dig deep to find it, “Riff Raff” is a really
heart-warming story.
Perl, Thvedt and Hobert started their own production company,
“Incredible Stretching Men” and the group has already
produced a 15 minute short called “Jurassic People” and
will be involved in another production, titled
“Orphans,” in May.
“There are a lot of talented people who are waiting to get
found and I can’t just sit around and wait,” Hobert
said. “I figure I might as well make it happen. If I
can’t make it on a big budget $50 million movie scale right
now, then I’m going to make it happen on a level I
can.”
Self-motivation and dedication are key for these three actors.
If nothing else, the fact that they’ve been rehearsing
“Riff Raff” by going around for the past few weeks
sporting thick Brooklyn accents, speaks to this.
THEATER: “Riff Raff” runs Feb. 10
at 2:30 p.m. and Feb. 11 at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. in 1330 Macgowan
Hall.