Dinwiddie delivers "a message to the young people of today"

Now through June 5, The Chocolate Factory is presenting Andrew Dinwiddie's heroic performance of Get Mad at Sin! In this demanding, hour-long solo, directed by Jeff Larson, Dinwiddie channels the fevered words and maniacal body language of a fundamentalist Christian preacher--specifically, one Jimmy Swaggart, the powerful televangelist brought low in 1988 by the revelation that he had solicited a prostitute.

Get Mad at Sin! is preached to a small audience arranged in an unusual seating pattern: two elevated facing rows crossing the length of the upstairs theater. Dinwiddie prowls between these rows, at times coming dangerously close to his watchers. He brings to life, verbatim, an LP recording of one of Swaggart's all-too-revealing fulminations against youthful licentiousness, a sermon preached at a First Assembly of God church in Arkansas.

It's a full-tilt, breathtaking performance: Southern-style verbal rhythms meant to rev up a congregation, pull it into his psychic whirlpool; physical tension and caged-panther pacing that erupts in lashing rage; Swaggart's verbal imprecisions and stumbles so perfectly modeled by Dinwiddie. A dark sensual longing, darker resentment of freedom, and even darker vindictiveness towards the free roil beneath the slicked-down, beige-suited surface of this disturbing and, at moments, comical ranter. Dinwiddie, as faithful as he is to the recording, brings all of this up and out like rancid sweat.

If we ever see Bessie Awards again, Dinwiddie will be a contender. At the very least, I'd be tickled to see Get Mad at Sin! join Wikipedia's list of parodies and riffs on Swaggart and his troubles.

Given the seating limitations, you should hurry if you'd like to see Get Mad at Sin! Get tickets here or call 212-352-3101.

The Chocolate Factory
5-49 49th Avenue, Long Island City, Queens
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