WEAKSAUCE by Sam Mullins. At Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse. July 9 at 2:45 pm, July 11 at 6 pm, July 13 at 9:15 pm, July 14 at noon, July 15 at 3:30 pm. See listing. Rating: NNNN
Sam Mullinss autobiographical solo show about awkward teenage romance at hockey camp is superb coming-of-age storytelling.
Seemingly engineered to advertise Mullins’s undeniable affability and general adorableness, the story perfectly captures those anxious, confusing and exciting feelings that accompany falling in love for the first time.
Mullins nails the art of spinning a good yarn (the pace, the timing, the structure), setting up the prickly rink-side love triangle he finds himself in. One comic highlight among many is his recurring impersonation of his romantic rival: a pompous and patronizing British pro hockey player named David who seems to outshine him at every turn.
The strength of Weaksauce is its ability to conjure up those long-forgotten (or long-repressed) adolescent feelings the flutter of a first kiss, the gut-punch of rejection that for better or for worse shape who we are today.