Monster In A Box

Spalding Gray: Monster In A Box

Spalding Gray: Monster In A Box

Monster In A Box is actually about two monsters:

1 There's the unfinished 1700 page manuscript that sits in a box on the desk in front of him, from which he's delivering his monologue &

2 It's his mother's suicide in 1965 (which is actually what his manuscript centers around). The monster, now in a box, who...

"...looked me right in the eyes and said, 'How shall I do it, dear? How shall I do it? Shall I do it in the garage with the car?'..."

Spalding Gray: Monster In A Box, the book

"...Spalding Gray is Nothing Less Than a Genius..." Joel Herskowitz

"...A Must-See for anyone with a sense of humor..." S. Smith

So with this trauma at the eye of the storm, Spalding takes us on a merry runaround, sharing all the incidents which somehow pop up to stop him having to process this trauma.

First he goes to a writer's colony where he can't write.

Then it's off to L.A., where he's been awarded a one-year residency with The Mark Taper Forum Theater to interview random people on the proviso that they're not part of the film biz (harder in L.A. than you think!).

Then, with the imminent release of the movie of Swimming To Cambodia, he starts to be courted by Hollywood, putting on 20 lbs as a result of their platinum card lunches...

"...(beginning) with bloody marys and celery - a healthy way to drink -
and go onto the sun-dried tomatoes and the arugula mache radiccio hot goat cheese salad
and then the poached baby salmon
the dwarf veggies
and the chardonnay
and the sauvignon blanc
and then the passionfruit mango mousse..."

Then it's down to Nicaragua on a sightseeing tour where the local left-wing Sandanistas are being murdered by the American-financed Contras and some local women are brought to meet his group...

"...My daughter was Rosa. They cut off her breasts, her arms, her legs, I never found all of her. She was thirteen..."

"...They put a metal rod through my son's head. It went through one ear and out the other. Please tell your President Reagan to stop these horrors. Please..."

Then it's an AIDS scare that he's alerted to just before the premiere of Cher's new movie Moonstruck and in reaction, Spalding starts...barking...during the movie!

Spalding Geay: Monster In A Box, the movie

And that's why the monster wasn't being written...or, at least finished. Diversions were easier to deal with than the monster. If that makes Monster In A Box sound grim, it isn't. Both the book and the movie are, for me, frequently laugh-aloud funny, delivered with the pacing of an expert story-teller who's also a damn fine comedian.

Of course, with Gray's own suicide in 2004, Monster In A Box is that much more poignant but I choose to see it only positively. That he lived until almost 60, when so much in him (he was both chronically narcissistic and oedipal) wanted to go long before that, is a triumph. You can be sure that he is happy because he rejoined his biggest fan.