Does the truth really hurt, or does it make you laugh? As Robert Dubac illustrates in his one-man show The Book of Moron, presented by Urban Stages, the answer is a bit of both. Not to be confused with the similarly titled musical - "If you came here for The Book of Mormon then this show's about you." - Dubac's show regards a fictional version of himself that is currently in a coma and trapped in his own mind. In a show of self-deprecating humor, the staged set of his mind is nearly empty save for a rolling cart filled with items, an empty black box and a giant chalkboard.
While Dubac is the lone actor in the production, there are a number of colorful characters who inhabit the stage at different points in the play. We have our protagonist Robert ("friends call him Bob") and the many areas of his inner personality whom he consults with as he tries to figure out what happened to him, all portrayed by Dubac. Their names speak for themselves as we have Robert's Voice of Reason, his Common Sense, Inner Moron, Inner Child and of course his Inner A**hole, who naturally does most of the talking. We as the audience act out the part of his Scruples as he uses us to decide whether he is making any progress in his quest for the truth. Dubac's ability to jump in and out of the personalities of his multiple inner selves shows an actor with a great talent for creating a character and committing to him both in voice and body. As a fun addition, and I won't spoil the moments this occurs in, Dubac also puts his talents as an illusionist to astonishing and hilarious use.
The play itself is less of a story and more of a series of satirical observations about the world we live in, and the closer to the truth Robert gets the closer these honest realizations about ourselves hit home. You won't be at risk of having an existential crisis in the theater, but the things Dubac says will make you smile as you realize just how superficial we all are, one of my favorite quotes being, "If you stop listening to talk radio, will you still have an opinion?".
As the Urban Stages theater is a small one, Dubac takes every golden opportunity to make the audience a part of the show, and his on-the-spot improvisations hit their marks as well as anything in his written script. It is a refreshing bit of theatre, like a stand-up routine but with a plot. Dubac is unapologetic in his delivery and that is the mark of a confident comedian, and if you're offended by what he says throughout the show, it's probably because it's true. That is what Dubac is trying to tell us, that we are all morons, no matter how much better we think we are than everyone else. Once we realize that about ourselves, we can begin to search for the greater truth.
Robert Dubac's The Book of Moron is playing in rep with The Male Intellect: An Oxymoron? at Urban Stages.
