By TIM DONNELLY • Special to the Guide
Times are tough these days. There’s that nasty merry-go-round of bad economic news, global turmoil and the sudden return of Michael Jackson.
So it’s a good opportunity to look back and laugh at an earlier, simpler time, one in which Slick Willie presided over a booming dot-economy as the gentle tones of Better Than Ezra wafted from the radio. It was then that two still-relatively unknown Boston boys named Matt Damon and Ben Affleck burst forth with the movie “Good Will Hunting,” plunging themselves into a miasma of celebrity, gossip and occasional smugness while brandishing their world’s sexiest mannishness credentials.
This is the setting of “Matt and Ben,” a comedic send-up of the two stars’ relationship and subsequent rise to fame after the Oscar-winning script for “Good Will Hunting” literally falls from the sky (completely written and wrapped in brown paper) and lands in their Boston apartment. The play — by all accounts a hilarious parody of celebrity culture and over-praised modern demi-gods, full of clever lines of vicious wit — will be performed at the South Carolina Repertory Company March 19 to April 5.
And it’s just the kind of funny escape people need these days, director Blake White said.
“We were looking for a play that was just funny and topical and had nothing to do with the economy,” said White, who is making his directorial debut.
“We want people to come in and buy a ticket, and then, 90 minutes later, hopefully the only problem they’ll have is their cheeks hurt from laughing,” he said. Plus, he added, the theater hasn’t been immune from the economic downturn itself, had been looking for relatively smaller productions to put on this year.
White, whose acting credits at the theater include “Proof,” “Foxfire,” and “Doubt,” realizes the production is a bit of a departure for the company as it ventures into a modern, pop-culture infused play.
“We’re rolling the dice a little bit. It’s different,” he said. “I think that’s what this theater is about. I think people in the area that come to see our stuff actually welcome something that’s going to be new and different.”
'Office' credentials
Co-written by and originally starring Mindy Kaling, who now writes for, produces and plays the role of Kelly on NBC’s “The Office,” “Matt & Ben” was an off-Broadway smash when it debuted in 2003. It landed at the height of America’s tabloid Affleck-tion, when saturation of Ben and J. Lo on magazine covers and talk of how bad “Gigli” was had reached a breaking point.
The two Boston boys are played as caricatures: Ben is the jocky clown; Matt is an intense, emotional guitar balladeer. Gwyneth Paltrow and J.D. Salinger pop in along the way as the two figure out what to do with the script that fell from the heavens and could make their careers.
And in another comedic twist, both leads are played by women. Megan Bowers (who previously appeared in “Foxfire”) plays Matt and SCRC regular Peggy Trecker (“Mauritius,” “The Last Five Years,” “Rabbit Hole” and others) plays Ben. The casting helps even those who don’t know much about Damon and Affleck find humor in the play, White said.
“I think that’s one of the more delightful premises of the show is the fact that it’s two women doing it,” he said. “It equals some comic scenarios that are really, really funny.”