Gene Kato’s cleverly-named 10 Pin Alley is a fun and funny romp in the usually staid and oily rear of a bowling alley. Bowling pins come to life like a feuding, dysfunctional family at once both actively engaged in insults and flirtations, and stuck with barely any control over their environment and fate. Their nemesis, of course, is the heaving, heavy ball that regularly tears through them like a bull in a China shop.

The only real power they think they have is in keeping a bowling score as low as possible, which would presumably minimize their own chaotic lives. They yearn for bowlers to get drunk and throw increasing number of gutter balls.

The dialogue is quick and occasionally edgy as each pin plays a certain “type.” Part of the fun is regularly referring back to see what each pin represents. In a way, they represent society in all its rawness and powerlessness. They have plenty of opinions, but when it comes down to it, they’re all at the mercy of the powerful ball. And once one game ends, another one starts right back up. You feel some sympathy for the pins, but their silliness and familiarity keeps things light and moving. Just like a night at the bowling alley.

We’re told that baseball is a metaphor for life. But for someone who’s done a lot of bowling, I think Gene Kato’s comical/farcical comes a lot closer to hitting it right in the pocket. This ensemble cast of all types (and tropes) has all the right moves for modern life with its ups and downs and unexpected hits from every angle. The jokes, puns, one-liners blend seamlessly with wry and witty observations about life in and out of the alley, and even if you wind up in the gutter, there’s still hope. This one scores 300.

I assigned this play in a writing class in a liberal arts college. And OH BOY the conversations it started, from the mechanics of bowling, to dramatic structure, to Brechtian Theatre, to Theatre of the Absurd, to performances of identity, to the ways in which we write for/about other identities and cultures (should we? should we not? why? why not? what are the traps?); I will say (and I don’t want to hurt Mr. Kato’s feelings) the folks who hated this play truly HATED this play; the folks who loved this play LOVED it and defended it as a break from the daily intellectual battlefield. I have never seen a group of people react as strongly to any play that we had assigned (read or seen), and for that alone, I say you absolutely should read this play. It’s…it’s just wild and insane and reminds us that theatre should be challenging, should entertain, and should elicit strong reactions that shake us out of passive spectatorship.