Hand to God?

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That play titled Hand to God - which I mentioned in yesterday's blog entry on the old NoZe Brother Robert Askins who's writing an HBO story about the NoZe's antics as an underground satirical society at Baylor - received an enthusiastic review from Charles Isherwood in an NYT article titled "Review: 'Hand to God' Features a Foul-Talking Puppet" (April 7, 2015):

Stand down, Inspector Javert, vengeful foe of bread-snatchers. A more formidable villain now stalks the Broadway boards, one who makes you seem about as frightening as a French pastry. His name, Tyrone, is not the scariest handle, but he's as ruthless as any dedicated evildoer, with a spectacularly foul mouth and a thirst for young flesh.

Oh, and he's also made of a gray sock, some felt and a fringe of fake fur. The terrible Tyrone is, in short, a hand puppet.

If you imagine that to be merely a punch line, forget it. The fearsome critter, who takes possession of a troubled teenager's left arm in Robert Askins's darkly delightful play "Hand to God," really inspires goose bumps as he unleashes a reign of terror on that teenager, Jason, and everyone in his orbit. But unlike the grim Javert, he's also flat-out hilarious, spewing forth acid commentary that will turn those goose bumps into guffaws.

If I follow the review correctly, the hand pupped is possessed by the Devil - or is thought to be possessed by the Devil - but is perhaps merely possessed by that "troubled teenager" unfortunate enough to have Tyrone stuck on his left hand.

Read the rest of the review on your own, and you can watch some scenes on video, but you may have to head for London to see the play itself since it's headed there after it closes on Broadway this coming January 3rd.