Duel intentions

Pistols crack, bullets fly, and when the smoke clears, Alexander Hamilton is dead: a series of events to close a chapter in a history book, sure, but a comedy show?

Indeed, this famous, unfortunate duel is what drives the action of Code Duello, a two-man long-form improv show making its way down from Boston this month for performances Friday 16 and Saturday 17 at the Peoples Improv Theater. (The show takes its name from the civilized rules meant to govern such a challenge.)

Matt Tucker and Neil Reynolds, who play Hamilton and his assailant, Aaron Burr, respectively, ask the audience for an item that might have appeared in a colonial newspaper. Then they launch into their 30-minute piece by way of a flashback to some time before this bitter, cliffside confrontation, a time when Hamilton and Burr were the best of friends.

From here, historical accuracy is abandoned outright in favor of wild, creative conjecture. As there’s no satisfying explanation for the souring of these patriots’ friendship, the lingering mystery behind the story, says Tucker, “is an invitation to screw around with it.” And screw around they do. During the appearance at the Del Close Marathon last summer—which garnered the duo an outrageously energetic standing O—Alexander Hamilton fell in love with a saber-toothed tiger and proposed marriage. Reynolds explains it another way: “We do not have an educational value.”

The show has a number of notably unconventional features. It’s got wigs along with the gunshots to heighten its theatrical sensibility, a remarkably rigid structure that helps the players propel the events toward the inevitable conclusion, and character monologues that address the audience directly as though they were characters (frequently, as members of Congress).

These sorts of improvised monologues, tricky to pull off, are a valuable asset to Tucker and Reynolds; despite often ridiculous subject matter, the moments of introspection frequently reveal a vulnerable emotional core behind a character’s behavior. They’re also indicative of the egos on display. Says Reynolds, “Our Hamilton and Burr don’t mind using the national stage to vent their personal issues. They’re just that powerful and self-centered. 'Fuck America, fuck the ideas we fought for; I have something to say.’?”

Ultimately, Reynolds says, it’s this sense of self-importance that makes bitter rivals of these once-bosom companions: “Between two proud, ambitious men, something really small blown out of proportion can destroy a friendship.” Let’s hope these same qualities don’t manifest in the dynamic, hilarious performers portraying these bloated American personages. They’ve vowed to keep doing the show as long as they “keep talking to each other”—even as they investigate, again and again, the finite difference between a good friend and some man on a Jersey cliff pointing a pistol at you.

Code Duello happens Fri 16 and Sat 17 at 7pm at Peoples Improv Theater.