In the New Kensington suburb of Pittsburgh, Pete lives in his apartment which is decorated in the finest man cave fashion. The walls are brown paneling. A Steelers helmet for wall art. A string of Planet of the Apes lights. Empty beer cans in a case by the door. The couch is red. An old folding chair. Incredible Hulk videos placed under the television. Since Pete Rex is being performed in the tiny Theater C at 59E59, there is a lot of detail to see as you enter this very intimate space. The setting gives a strong sense of the people we are about to meet.
The play opens with Pete (Greg Cerere) and his best bud Bo (Simon Winheld) in the midst of Madden Tuesday. The competition is well underway and Bo now wants to play Gronk. For those not in the know, Madden is the popular long running football videogame series and Gronkowski is a tight end for the New England Patriots. Madden Tuesday is apparently a standing weekly man cave date. Pete’s ex-girlfriend Julie (Rosie Sowa) comes by with some disturbing news.
The boys have not been watching television and do not know that dinosaurs are loose in New Kensington and starting to eat people. Julie grabbed what little food there was left in the supermarket, namely Zebra Cakes, and ran right over. Pete loves these plastic wrapped Little Debbie brand things. Meanwhile, the dinosaurs are approaching, the noise is increasing, the overhead light is trembling and things are getting mighty scary.
Is Pete Rex is about escaped dinosaurs terrorizing a small town? Well, Pete has always been fascinated by dinosaurs and wanted to be a paleontologist. The mood here is Jurassic-level emotional drama, although the dinosaurs do get to eat a bit in the process. Alexander V. Thompson’s play covers much territory from man child relationships to crisis management to jealousy to mental stability. The cast is game and the director (Brad Raimondo) reasonably steers an overabundance of styles including melodrama, absurdity, comedy, horror, ridiculousness and poignancy. That’s a lot to handle and Pete Rex cannot survive the onslaught. A nicely written ending wraps up a serious yet wildly overcooked play.