A Man’s Man
By Mark Jason Williams
Planet Connections Theatre
The Clemente, The Latea
107 Suffolk St, New York, NY 10002
Tuesday 7/31 @ 7:45pm-9:15pm
Review by Alexa Garcia

It’s been said that while women are “emotional,” men aren’t – as it’s not manly, and boys don’t cry. So instead, men just [grin and] bear all their emotions. A Man’s Man is a powerful, timely new drama about three generations of men bound by family obligations and the unexpected revelations that constrain them to rethink and question the conventional stereotypes and pressure as they go through loss and love.

A Man’s Man is written by Mark Jackson Williams and directed by Andrew Block. It’s a one-night only encore reading of the Planet Connections award-winning play benefiting NYC Anti-Violence Project. The cast of the production includes Dan Patrick Brady (Jack), Thom Christensen (Tom), Jon Krupp (Frank), Scott Watson (Steve), and Joscelyne Wilmouth (Marilyn). The performers were not bound by “manly” constraints and expressed powerful emotions of anger, sadness, and frustration very well. The script transitions from one feeling to another a bit quickly and could use a bit of padding so lead-ins are smooth. It was still an enjoyable production with a great meaning behind it.

The meaning behind this production confronts the stereotypes for men. The ones we always hear and follow/believe. “Men don’t cry,” “It’s unmanly for boys to show their emotions,” “Don’t cry… that’s wimpy.”

We have all heard these before either on TV, movie, book or from your own family. It’s a bunch of baloney. These stereotypes must be broken, or else males will continue to put up a strong front and emotionally and mentally hurt themselves by keeping it all in. every human should express themselves and not keep quiet about their problems.