My Dinner with Bambi by Austin's own Randy Lewis is a darkly comic update of the classic film My Dinner with Andre---with hints of The Sweet Smell of Success, Carnage, The O’Reilly Factor and Veep.
Much has changed for the worse in the thirty years since Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn shared their famous conversation about life, love, and art. Instead of a thoughtful exchange between two philosophically-minded artists enjoying a fine meal, we are witness to a more cynical exchange about money, power, and the future of America, subjects that have turned Bambi Krill into a right-wing celebrity with her own TV shows, best-selling books, and lucrative speaking gigs.
Loyalties are torn one evening when Bambi holds court with her two young acolytes, Sarah and Roger, one of whom is not yet converted to the dark side of big money punditry. Drinking in a cigar bar after a widely protested campus lecture, Bambi spars with her minions over too many glasses of bourbon, until an explosive encounter with Sarah’s parents brings deeper tensions to the surface.
CHARACTERS
· Wildly opinionated, darkly charismatic, and supernaturally curvaceous, Bambi Krill is the 40-something host of “The Krill Zone,” a popular right-wing TV talk show that divides the world into two opposing camps: smart, righteous “Krillers” who side with Bambi’s barbs, and the “liberals and losers” who disagree with her red, white, and blue vision of America. Her brand of scornful, liberal-skewing journalism has brought her wealth, fame, and a firm sense of her own moral superiority, even as she lives an opulent life of endless self-promotion and disputatious name-calling. Her most ardent fans are frat boys and retired white guys, two demographics that appreciate her angry politics as much as her artfully displayed décolletage and silky tresses. She is a sexy Lou Dobbs, a more competent Sarah Palin, a raven-haired Ann Coulter, all wrapped into winning package that never quite conceals the burning resentment and animal ferocity beneath.
· 25 year old Sarah Atwood is an overwhelmed new intern on “Team Bambi,” a position she has assumed reluctantly to please her father, a publishing executive hoping to cash in Bambi’s mass appeal. She's desperately trying to figure out how to survive in her new job on Team Bambi.
· A few years older than Sarah, Roger Burke is a second year intern/Associate Producer who is eager to follow in Bambi’s footsteps toward lucrative speaking gigs and media celebrity—even though he’s terrified of her. He quotes the National Review like the Bible, wears ultra-preppy clothes, and speaks in an odd patois that blends Ivy League cadences with hip hop slang. He’s an overgrown frat boy with a very thin Christian veneer.
· Phillip Atwood (Sarah’s father, Fiona’s husband) runs a small publishing house. His expensive suit and plumy voice belie the fact that he’s on the edge of business collapse---and maybe divorce as well. He hopes his daughter’s connection to Bambi will allow him to sign Bambi’s next bestseller. Saving his struggling company is the real reason he wants his daughter to intern on Team Bambi, aside from his unfettered enthusiasm for Bambi’s “assets.”
· Fiona Atwood. A slender, elegant, well-spoken woman in her 40s. She carries herself with dignity and bearing, at least at first. A high school English teacher who was a college professor before hitting some professional hurdles, Fiona is more freethinking and liberal than her husband, although she is trying to hold her tongue for the sake of her husband and daughter.
· Five demented young “Fanboys” and one (allegedly) “Wounded Vet” who worship Bambi.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Randy Lewis teaches in the American Studies dept. at UT-Austin where teaches film and cultural history, runs The End of Austin project, and is writing a book about contemporary surveillance. He has produced documentary films, music videos, and experimental video, and was a contributing writer for The Brooklyn Rail. Bambi is his first play.
Much has changed for the worse in the thirty years since Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn shared their famous conversation about life, love, and art. Instead of a thoughtful exchange between two philosophically-minded artists enjoying a fine meal, we are witness to a more cynical exchange about money, power, and the future of America, subjects that have turned Bambi Krill into a right-wing celebrity with her own TV shows, best-selling books, and lucrative speaking gigs.
Loyalties are torn one evening when Bambi holds court with her two young acolytes, Sarah and Roger, one of whom is not yet converted to the dark side of big money punditry. Drinking in a cigar bar after a widely protested campus lecture, Bambi spars with her minions over too many glasses of bourbon, until an explosive encounter with Sarah’s parents brings deeper tensions to the surface.
CHARACTERS
· Wildly opinionated, darkly charismatic, and supernaturally curvaceous, Bambi Krill is the 40-something host of “The Krill Zone,” a popular right-wing TV talk show that divides the world into two opposing camps: smart, righteous “Krillers” who side with Bambi’s barbs, and the “liberals and losers” who disagree with her red, white, and blue vision of America. Her brand of scornful, liberal-skewing journalism has brought her wealth, fame, and a firm sense of her own moral superiority, even as she lives an opulent life of endless self-promotion and disputatious name-calling. Her most ardent fans are frat boys and retired white guys, two demographics that appreciate her angry politics as much as her artfully displayed décolletage and silky tresses. She is a sexy Lou Dobbs, a more competent Sarah Palin, a raven-haired Ann Coulter, all wrapped into winning package that never quite conceals the burning resentment and animal ferocity beneath.
· 25 year old Sarah Atwood is an overwhelmed new intern on “Team Bambi,” a position she has assumed reluctantly to please her father, a publishing executive hoping to cash in Bambi’s mass appeal. She's desperately trying to figure out how to survive in her new job on Team Bambi.
· A few years older than Sarah, Roger Burke is a second year intern/Associate Producer who is eager to follow in Bambi’s footsteps toward lucrative speaking gigs and media celebrity—even though he’s terrified of her. He quotes the National Review like the Bible, wears ultra-preppy clothes, and speaks in an odd patois that blends Ivy League cadences with hip hop slang. He’s an overgrown frat boy with a very thin Christian veneer.
· Phillip Atwood (Sarah’s father, Fiona’s husband) runs a small publishing house. His expensive suit and plumy voice belie the fact that he’s on the edge of business collapse---and maybe divorce as well. He hopes his daughter’s connection to Bambi will allow him to sign Bambi’s next bestseller. Saving his struggling company is the real reason he wants his daughter to intern on Team Bambi, aside from his unfettered enthusiasm for Bambi’s “assets.”
· Fiona Atwood. A slender, elegant, well-spoken woman in her 40s. She carries herself with dignity and bearing, at least at first. A high school English teacher who was a college professor before hitting some professional hurdles, Fiona is more freethinking and liberal than her husband, although she is trying to hold her tongue for the sake of her husband and daughter.
· Five demented young “Fanboys” and one (allegedly) “Wounded Vet” who worship Bambi.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Randy Lewis teaches in the American Studies dept. at UT-Austin where teaches film and cultural history, runs The End of Austin project, and is writing a book about contemporary surveillance. He has produced documentary films, music videos, and experimental video, and was a contributing writer for The Brooklyn Rail. Bambi is his first play.