STUCK
Written by JJ Ivey; Directed by Patrick O’Connell
Presented by Wicked Cat Productions and New York City Fringe Festival
Chain Theatre | 312 West 36th Street, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10018
April 2–17, 2025
Theatre festivals are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get.
The FRIGID Festival kicks off tonight in NYC and approximately 65 shows will run in rep at 5 different venues. Shows will run a bit under an hour. There will be one-acts and bits of longer works in progress; dramas, comedies and musicals.
The New York City Fringe Festival is bustling with plays being produced by overwhelming powerhouses of talent. Amongst the remarkable pool of creativity and talent is Wicked Cat Productions’ very own playwright and actor JJ Ivey with his play Stuck. Directed by Patrick O’Connell, the story revolves around two central characters who are lifelong friends—except one is holding a secret. What seems innocent enough as two school friends recount their childhood becomes an illicit and bold brief love affair.
The intimacy of the stage invites the perfect environment for Dale, played by Royce Thomas Johnson, to express his pent-up emotions to Drew, played by JJ Ivey. Drew is completely taken aback by the enigmatic Dale, whom he assumed he knew completely to be a straight Christian male navigating country life. Set in middle America, the excruciating reality is still alive and well when it comes to religion and sexuality, confining most people from living their truths—or worse, forcing them to live in shame.
Hidden tensions come to the forefront when both characters are left to face their past traumas and who they have become today. The play examines how our childhood shapes our reality. “Trauma can be funny if you survive it,” Drew wistfully says, and you can see he has had no choice but to accept the harsh cruelty and humiliation of being gay in the South. The playwright poignantly sheds light on how a form of healing from trauma comes from a person’s ability to laugh or make light of something so tragic. The weight that becomes lifted is the soul’s resurrection—a refusal to surrender to pain and suffering.
The playwright also captures layered nuances, from sexuality to body image. Drew’s extreme weight loss and coming to terms with his body is tenderly embraced as Dale reminds him of his physical beauty. Dale’s tenderness reveals a depth Drew never imagined. Dale is your quintessential country boy who drinks too much and goes from one woman to the next. In his drunken Jack Daniel’s haze, he releases his carnal desires for Drew, completely taking Drew by surprise. Dale admits to his bisexuality, which he keeps hidden, sweeping his longing under the rug.
The chemistry between both actors is electrifying and steamy as they share passionate and intimate displays. Right when the audience is wiping the steam off their lenses, Dale comes to a complete halt to admit to Drew how he builds hatred for those he sleeps with—and that he doesn’t want to hate Drew but always love him. Sexuality brings about the very nature of our pain in terms of how we relate to it. In this instance, we see Dale has yet to work through his inner turmoil, as self-hatred and loathing rise to the forefront.
A gallant Drew remarks, “I’ve been pining over straight boys my whole life. I’ll get over it. I’m not going to wait for you to be my happy ending.” In his proclamation, you see the character’s breakthrough. He is no longer going to passively allow life to happen, but instead set boundaries he was not capable of before. What seems to be a melancholic ending of two people who will never share a happy ending is anything but that—Stuck is a declaration that the act of self-love is the ultimate vindication.
Click HERE for tickets.
Review by Bianca Lopez.
Published by Theatre Beyond Broadway on April 6th, 2025. All rights reserved.