WNEP Theater -Losers Bracket: Four Monkeys Hump'n a Football

2131 W. Cuyler #1
Chicago, IL 60618
Ph: (773) 879-4610
Email: hall@wneptheater.org

The Critics say:

“...a gut-busting comedy with no-nonsense doses of heart...elements of the Coen Brothers’ twisted sense of truth mingle with the laidback lunacy of Mayberry..."

“...Don Hall is ideally cast as the motor-mouth Hitch. He’s a commanding yet endearing presence. Patrick Brennan, a master of nerdy subtlety, makes Sheriff Terry a likable and strangely resilient figure...Dave Goss’ Joaquin Phoenix-esque slacker Ethan also wins our sympathy and serves as an earnest sidekick to Mike Powers’ clueless but committed Tiny...Kathy Sander and James Yeater inject a just-short-of-annoying jolt of huff and prissiness into their characters. The pair also excels in loopy multiple roles..."

“...Director Jen Ellison brings out such an unforced truth from her skilled actors that they win over the audience through their flawed humanity...”

ChicagoTheater.com
[Read the Full Review]

“WNEP Theater scores with the world premiere of "Losers Bracket," a comedic caper by brothers Clay and Nate Sander that is chock-full of vigor and belly laughs. The play hums with the kind of quirky, blue-collar, sports-loving bravado that made "Bleacher Bums" a Chicago classic. Set in a small town — the kind of place where the sheriff gets an emergency call to open a stubborn jar of olives at the local bar — "Losers Bracket" at times veers into the "fun-at-the-expense-of-yokels" territory mined exhaustively by the Coen Brothers. But the Brothers Sander also exhibit an assured command of dialogue and character in their first full-length script.”
-- Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO TRIBUNE READER REVIEW

September 12, 2002
Mary R
Chicago , IL
"EXCELLENT!EXCELLENT!EXCELLENT! I'd almost given up on live stage but this performance has certainly changed my mind. For a small theatre production, the acting and directing was spectacular, especially the segments performed in slow motion. Very funny with unexpected twists in the plot. I would HIGHLY recommend seeing this play."

	Exciting. Unexpected. Smart. Entertaining. Original. Theater.
2131 W. Cuyler #1 Chicago, IL 60618 Ph: (773) 879-4610 Email: hall@wneptheater.org Click here to see the set! The Critics say: “...a gut-busting comedy with no-nonsense doses of heart...elements of the Coen Brothers’ twisted sense of truth mingle with the laidback lunacy of Mayberry..." “...Don Hall is ideally cast as the motor-mouth Hitch. He’s a commanding yet endearing presence. Patrick Brennan, a master of nerdy subtlety, makes Sheriff Terry a likable and strangely resilient figure...Dave Goss’ Joaquin Phoenix-esque slacker Ethan also wins our sympathy and serves as an earnest sidekick to Mike Powers’ clueless but committed Tiny...Kathy Sander and James Yeater inject a just-short-of-annoying jolt of huff and prissiness into their characters. The pair also excels in loopy multiple roles..." “...Director Jen Ellison brings out such an unforced truth from her skilled actors that they win over the audience through their flawed humanity...” ChicagoTheater.com [Read the Full Review] “WNEP Theater scores with the world premiere of "Losers Bracket," a comedic caper by brothers Clay and Nate Sander that is chock-full of vigor and belly laughs. The play hums with the kind of quirky, blue-collar, sports-loving bravado that made "Bleacher Bums" a Chicago classic. Set in a small town — the kind of place where the sheriff gets an emergency call to open a stubborn jar of olives at the local bar — "Losers Bracket" at times veers into the "fun-at-the-expense-of-yokels" territory mined exhaustively by the Coen Brothers. But the Brothers Sander also exhibit an assured command of dialogue and character in their first full-length script.” -- Chicago Tribune CHICAGO TRIBUNE READER REVIEW September 12, 2002 Mary R Chicago , IL "EXCELLENT!EXCELLENT!EXCELLENT! I'd almost given up on live stage but this performance has certainly changed my mind. For a small theatre production, the acting and directing was spectacular, especially the segments performed in slow motion. Very funny with unexpected twists in the plot. I would HIGHLY recommend seeing this play."		LOSERS BRACKET: Four Monkeys Hump'n a Football by Clay & Nate Sander Directed by Jen Ellison ORIGINAL RUN: September 12 through October 26 Thursdays - Saturdays at 8:00PM The Critics say: "This troupe's fascination with the flawed and foolish everyman continues in Clay and Nate Sander's first full-length script, an elegantly conceived slice of life about fishing, drinking, ranting and cussing in the Middle American wasteland. The last Sander brothers collaboration - Leopold!, a rapid-fire sketch show stage at WNEP in 2001 - took a pretty high-minded look at some pretty dull folks. With this script they've settled into a comfortably middlebrow approach that echoes the warts-and-all logic of the Coen and Farrelly clans: ugliness is beautiful, and intelligence is not necessarily a virtue. Director Jen Ellison has sharp instincts when it comes to this type of loose and sprawling stuff: her staging gives the script a clear rhythm. But what's best about this show is its use of the human heart as an anchor. Dave Goss and Mike Powers wear their pathetic hearts on their sleeve as a pair of hapless, down-on-their-luck barflies. Patrick Brennan is equal parts Andy Taylor and Barney Fife as the sheriff, Terry. Even Don Hall, who shoots from the hip as inveterate asshole Hitch (an extension of his persona in Angry White Guy Reads the Paper), is all heart beneath his gruff exterior and Ditka 'stache. The general theme of Losers Bracket is equally pure: despite all the screwball backstabbing and infighting, the biggest laughs come from simply basking in the mind-numbing predictability of human nature." -- Chicago Reader “Director and Set Designer Jen Ellison does more with that 20'x20' or so area for Losers Bracket: Four Monkeys Hump'n a Football than a theater three times its size could only dream to do...the detail and care took to evoke the feeling of a small-town hangout [is] amazing...Don Hall plays Hitch as John Goodman from The Big Lebowski meets Ignatius J. Reilly from Confederacy of Dunces sprinkled with some good old South Side Chicago flair...the delightfully engaging Patrick Brennan steals every scene he is in and gets to deliver most of the choicest lines...the dialogue is quick and barbed...both a character study and a crime caper...extremely enjoyable to watch...” -- TheatreChicago.com	Hollywood has the Coen brothers - Chicago has the Brothers Sander! LOSERS BRACKET: Four Monkeys Hump’n a Football follows "Hitch" Bigwood and his four small-town friends - Ethan, Terry, Tiny, and Boo - in a comedy of errors about softball, beer, and insurance fraud. Bigwood is the wealthiest man in town due to a forklift accident that left him with a permanent limp. Using his disability and the insurance money that came as a result, he lords over his small circle of friends until an inadvertant discovery spins this fall-down-funny comedy into hilarious overdrive! LOSERS BRACKET: Four Monkeys Hump’n a Football is the first full-length play written by Clay and Nate Sander. Clay has written short and medium-length sketches for a number of local sketch comedy productions (including WNEP’s The Armageddon Radio Hour) and most recently co-wrote and starred in WNEP’s critically acclaimed Leopold! last fall. Nate, while primarily a screenwriter, also worked on Leopold! with Clay, but LOSERS BRACKET is the first “official” collaboration for the two Sander boys. Director Jen Ellison, a graduate of the Theatre School at DePaul University, is also the Artistic Director of WNEP and has directed many critical hits for the ten year old company, including Wise Blood (which she also adapted from the novel by Flannery O’Connor), PHOBIA, when we were SUPERSTARS, Harold Pinter’s The Dumbwaiter, and most recently the highly acclaimed revival of The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. Ellison has also directed for Collaboraction and the Playground, as well as performing in numerous productions all over Chicago. FEATURING: Patrick Brennan, David Goss, Don Hall, Rebecca Langguth, Mike Powers, Kathy Sander, and James Yeater

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