Gabriel Regojo in The Blackest Shore. Photo by Anthony Rathbun.
The Blackest Shore
Written by: Mark Schultz
Directed by: Jason Noodler
Company: The Catastrophic Theatre
Run Dates: February 13 – March 7, 2015
Read my review of The Blackest Shore for Houston Press at
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/artattack/2015/02/the_blackest_shore_review.php
Applause! Meter 
Ages ago there was a TV show called QUINCY about a LA Coroner? Can’t remember. Something to do with medicine and the cops. Jack Clugman played him. Anyway there was one show in which a kid was being abused by a parent. The police couldn’t tell which one. Then Quincy comes in. The kid shies away from the mother and gravitates to the father. The father wants to take the kid on a camping trip. When Quincy hears this–kid shies away from MOM and goes to FATHER…..he is aghast that the kid would be allowed to go because the father, he figures is the abuser. The abused person goes to the abuser to try and change his/her mind, to get their affection. The abused wife sticks with the abusing husband for the same reason. I think your playwright is doing the same thing in his play… Terrific review….
Lynn
First of all, hysterical is it that you are name checking a 70’s police/medical drama to make your point here. Love that! I think what Schultz was trying to show (other than how abuse like this messes up a life) is a shocking reaction to the abuse. Namely that the son WANTS to be with the dad and thinks he’s the only one who loves him. It’s a riff on Stockholm syndrome. I get it. Interesting. But then why make the father comedic? Why make the mother SO egregiously horrendous? And what of the flakey therapist that provides an unnecessary twist in the plot? It’s a lot of padding and forks in the style/plot that get in the way of this play actually speaking to us.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go YouTube old Quicny episodes. Love the opening theme…if I remember correctly all cheesisly shot through the letter “Q”.