The Motherf**cker with the Hat by Stephen Adly Guirgis

Set in three distinct New York City apartments around the turn of the 21^st century, Guirgis has created an urban world focusing on members of the working poor whose lives collide at the intersection of love and hate.  Yet in many respects he has given us a comedy.  Yes, Guirgis’ nuanced characterizations, street-savvy vernacular, and high-octane action jaggedly shift between humor and violence, vulgarity and hilarity in a New York second.  Collectively, his ensemble of five form a chamber piece of sorts steeped in swift and bitingly eloquent dialogue, giving rise to a situation comedy that is as poignant as it is funny.  At the heart of their plight is the anxious need to cope, survive, and ultimately, find love and meaning in their desperate lives: the addictive Jackie; the self-sabotaging Veronica; the wolfish Ralf D; the affection-starved Victoria; and the righteously avuncular Cousin Julio; all empathic portraits of imperfection in the context of an urban battlefield, where one’s words are as dangerous as the drugs and weapons that pervade their quotidian existence.