The opportunity to take a wander through Christopher Walken’s mind seems to good to miss and thankfully this is the case with Loboista Theater’s delightfully entertaining Citizen Walken.
Essentially this production hinges on Peter Loureiro’s uncanny resemblance to a young Walken and his ability to replicate the unusual speech patterns and diction that Walken is so famous for but it is a well-written script that keeps things largely on track. The basic premise is that Walken is in a coma (after an ape attack of all things) and we’ve been given the opportunity to step into his sub-conscious as he tries to find himself.
It’s an interesting trip, punctuated with interesting thoughts and characters, though the effect is slightly spoilt by an ‘interview’ with James Lipton. Not only is this scene far fetched beyond the wild boundaries of this play but there is also the fact that Lipton has no cultural significance here and the general effect, bar the surrealism of the encounter, is lost on the majority of the audience.
Other than this glitch, Citizen Walken is an entertaining, if slightly daft play that has far more merits than flaws. The only other thing that rankles slightly is that I’m convinced that Walken’s mind is actually far more warped than this suggests.
3/5
Richard Biggs
