Look Back in Humor

David Bottrell is a Han Solo of solo shows. In 2011 David Dean Bottrell Makes Love: A One-Man Show premiered at Rogue Machine Theatre. Now the Kentucky-born talent is going Rogue again, presenting at least his third production (along with The Death of Me Yet) wherein the award-winning Bottrell performs what he has written, as well as directs himself. (However, as of press time, I’m not sure if this multi-talented one-man band also rips the ticket stubs and screws the lightbulbs into the stage lights himself, too.)

“Dear Mr. Bottrell, I Cannot Possibly Accept This…” consists of around six largely autobiographical vignettes demarcated by titles projected onstage emanating from various moments in the eponymous thesp/bard’s checkered life, as he takes stock of his years. However, the first episode is actually set way down yonder in the land of cotton (and bluegrass) during the 19th century, and on the surface, has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the production. Except, by the end of this 90-ish minute one-person show, the astute theatergoer will discern that thematically, if not chronologically, this curtain-raiser rather cleverly ties into and has absolutely everything to do with the rest of Bottrell’s wry recounting of his life. The first scene also has some rather wickedly droll double entendres as ticket buyers may be wondering (while they squirm in their seats): “Is he really going to go there?” to hilarious effect.

The rest of this one-man show follows our man Bottrell back and forth in time and in space from his old Kentucky home to Manhattan to the Hamptons, etc., as he strives to fulfill his show biz aspirations and libidinous desires in Gotham’s Gomorrah. Alternately pithy and pissy, the production ranges from comedy (and there are lots of comic, laugh-out-loud moments) to drama, from the good-natured to the angsty, if not to outright tragedy per se.

In one play-let, the 20-ish Bottrell gets it into his noggin that if he’s going to become a Broadway star, he should take voice lessons. Somehow, the ill-advised Bottrell does so with a boozy has-been (if she ever was?) at her Lincoln Towers apartment, where he embarks on the most torturous singing classes since the 2016 biopic Florence Foster Jenkins starring Meryl Streep, with great comedic panache. The sketchy, lonely and much older instructor heedlessly makes a pass at a distraught Bottrell without even realizing that he’s gay. (BTW, like Florence this chapter references an STD.)

In another skit set, if memory serves correctly, in L.A., Bottrell reenacts how heartbreak affected and afflicted his younger self after a troubling breakup, and how he (rather disastrously) tried to cope with the loss of a lover. Towards the play’s end Bottrell returns to that old Kentucky home where he contends with a dysfunctional family straight out of Tennessee Williams’ Glass Menagerie. For one thing, he dramatizes how “Christian” fundamentalism wreaks havoc upon one’s sensuality and sexuality.

The play’s vignette that the title is derived from is a very funny take on a faux pas (which from a Freudian POV was caused indirectly by Bottrell’s mother). I won’t reveal any plot spoilers that will detract from viewers’ good fun, but it provides what may be the performance’s biggest hearty laugh.

In addition to depicting himself, as is often the case in one-person theatrical undertakings, Bottrell also skillfully embodies and portrays the other characters who, so to speak, people the stage alongside him. The invisible cast Bottrell conjures up and incarnates provides this veteran of TV series such as Frasier, Boston Legal, True Blood, Mad Men, etc., ample opportunity to indulge in and exercise his acting muscles. From beginning to end “Dear Mr. Bottrell, I Cannot Possibly Accept This…” is an engaging, poignant look at the follies, foibles and hopes of our all-too-human condition, full of laughter, earning a standing ovation from the sold-out crowd. While the British bard John Osborne looked back in anger, David Bottrell whimsically looks back in humor and to good effect. This yarn-spinner’s 2023 NYC Bistro Award for “Outstanding Achievement in Storytelling/ Live Performance” is certainly well-deserved.

This is also the first one-man show that Rogue Machine’s new Solo Show Producer, Jennifer Sorenson, has helped bring to the stage. Judging by the results, Ms. Sorenson’s off to a great start, with hopefully many more one-person productions to follow at what is indisputably one of L.A.’s finest theater companies. Rogue’s next individual onstage endeavor is the one-woman show Patient 13, written and performed by Gail Thomas, directed by Dan Oliverio, which opens August 16. Until then, during its brief run, audiences who enjoy wistful, picaresque, episodic, funny, gay-themed solo shows can hit a homerun with a Louisville slugger by catching “Dear Mr. Bottrell…” A splendid time was had by all.

“Dear Mr. Bottrell, I Cannot Possibly Accept This…” is being performed Saturdays July 13 and July 20 at 3:00 p.m. and July 21, Sunday at 3:00 p.m. at the Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Avenue, L.A., California, 90048. For reservations call ​(855)585-5185 or https://roguemachine.ludus.com/index.php.