'The Holes' Off-Broadway review — belly up to the bar's backroom

Read our review of The Holes off Broadway, the latest collaboration between playwright Max Wolf Friedlich and director Michael Herwitz following their acclaimed thriller Job.

Summary

• The Holes is set at a Hudson Valley town's local bar with a mysterious backroom
• The play reunites playwright Max Wolf Friedlich and director Michael Herwitz after their hit thriller Job
• The dark comedy is funny but tonally unbalanced as it tries to be both straightforward and absurdist at points
• The show is recommended for fans of Job, of actor/playwright Bubba Weiler (whose recent Off-Broadway hits include Well, I'll Let You Go), and of the off-kilter films of Robert Pattinson, who produced The Holes

The Holes doesn’t make much sense, and really, it’s not supposed to. Max Wolf Friedlich’s play, now running off Broadway at the Wild Project, lulls you into a false sense of straight-play security: A protagonist returns to his hometown, putting his plans on hold to help an ailing parent, and finds both help and hindrances from his community along the way. Joey's (Bubba Weiler) acerbic wit distracts both the audience and the regulars of his dying father’s Hudson Valley bar from a nefarious backroom operation, for which everyone from weary traveling businessman Wesley (Grantham Coleman) to Joey’s former high school bully Carson (Jack Mulhern) plunks down envelopes of cash.

The backroom may be Joey’s ticket to financial freedom amid mounting medical bills, a rapidly changing post-Covid Kingston, and his own lack of motivation to do anything else with his middling life. But don’t let the wacky ramblings of the drunken Martha (Tina Benko, who needs more physical comedy roles) deter you: There really is something strange afoot in that backroom. Or rather, a hand.

Though the cast seems determined to make it work, The Holes doesn’t quite land with the absurdist oomph Friedlich and director Michael Herwitz (who also directed Friedlich’s acclaimed Job) hope for. It’s not that the play isn’t funny. It’s hard not to laugh at the seriousness with which Wesley — who wants to buy the whole joint — tries to scale the concept of a backroom gloryhole or the way Martha preaches its appeal like gospel. (Her belief that the promise of an anonymous sexual release might’ve curbed domestic violence and stopped school shootings in Kingston is both funny and sad as you realize she’s probably right.)

Weiler spends much of the play with his shoulders up to his ears as the standoffish Joey. He's much too judgmental and sardonic to be a proper bartender, but his assessment of the backroom’s “teacher” as a “true pervert” who does it for the thrill, not the money, almost made tears run down my face. Never mind that the setup Joey’s describing is a huge exploitation of labor — we’re not meant to take The Holes too seriously until we are, when a moment of clarity rocks the audience's and the characters’ worlds.

Or at least, that’s what The Holes is striving to achieve, but it's too unbalanced. Martha's dialogue puts her just over the line into caricature, and Friedlich's designations of madness just doesn’t add up. Either Martha has totally lost her mind with her theory of what makes the backroom experience so unique, or Joey’s crazy because he’s the only one in town who’s not a believer. The Holes tries to land in between and falls flat.

That the mystery behind The Holes isn’t terrifying so much as it is silly isn’t a problem: Anything can feel life-altering and scary when treated with so much reverence, and if the play had leaned into the ridiculous the whole time, I would’ve been happy to dive in headfirst. Sound designer Brandon Bulls and composer Zack Villere do their best to make the everyday feel ominous with their confidently creepy effects, but those effects need to be played for more than just scene transitions to cement the play’s tone. The Holes wants to have it both ways as a straight drama about gentrification and an absurdist romp about sex, violence, and fragile masculinity, and with a meandering second act, it achieves neither. Though the premise is enough to earn laughter, what The Holes needs to do is commit to the bit.

The Holes summary

The Holes follows Joey, a young man who finds himself bitterly back in his Hudson Valley hometown after he takes over the family business. While his (mostly) unseen father, Phil, deals with end-stage rectal cancer, Joey tries to keep the bar afloat and authentic by charging cash for a mysterious backroom experience that locals love and new online fans covet.

When a Manhattan businessman offers to transform the bar into an elite club for men who will pay big money for an escape into the backroom, Joey is initially torn between his community and the promise of financial security. When locals Martha and Carson begin spreading rumors about who is in control of the backroom, Joey faces a battle no one saw coming.

What to expect at The Holes

The Holes runs approximately 2 hours, including a 15-minute intermission. It includes discussions of sex, bullying, homophobia, alcoholism, and the deaths of parents and children, as well as a brief sequence of onstage simulated violence with prop blood. The action unfolds on the bar set by Anna Grigo, who captures the lived-in appeal of a town watering hole and then transforms it into an aspirational Instagram backdrop after intermission.

Friedlich’s play leans into the absurd slowly, building a humorous tension until Joey and the audience are both wondering which theory about the backroom is sound and which is full of, well, holes. The cast had to pause multiple times during the second act to wait for my audience to calm down from laughing so hard at the ridiculous situations put forth; Joey’s blunt description of one unseen character is particularly funny.

What audiences are saying about The Holes

On theatre review forums like Mezzanine, The Holes has received positive responses from audience members at early performances.

• Mezzanine user Michael Coppola calls The Holes “funny, unique, compelling, and somehow way better than its synopsis could lead you to believe.”
• Mezzanine user Caleb Grochalski says he enjoyed “elements of naturalism and also surrealism playing with each other” at The Holes.
• In a five-star Mezzanine review, user Michael Villane writes simply, “Bubba Weiler is a god.”

Who should see The Holes

• Fans of Bubba Weiler’s recent Off-Broadway hits Well, I’ll Let You Go and The Saviors, both of which he wrote, will relish the chance to see him back on stage.
• If you enjoyed — or were curious about — Friedlich and Herwitz’s thriller Job off or on Broadway, you may want to check out the more humorous fare of The Holes.
• If you watch every off-kilter arthouse movie Robert Pattinson stars in, you’ll want to see The Holes: He’s an executive producer with his company Icki Eneo Arlo.

Learn more about The Holes off Broadway

The cast of The Holes delivers as many laughs as they can, and though the play feels too long and out of order by the end, the performances aren’t tiring.

Learn more about The Holes on New York Theatre Guide. The Holes is at The Wild Project through October 18.

Photo credit: The Holes off Broadway. (Photos by HanJie Chow)