It’ll get a ‘Hold’ of you

In just 25 minutes, Ruben Carbajal’s “Hold” is able to make you laugh and think about your life.

It’s ultimately quite an endeavor, considering there’s only one actor on stage and no scenery in the production.

A dark comedy that has a man [James Lentini] on the phone with a suicide prevention hotline that ultimately morphs into a closer dissection of his life, “Hold” is entertaining from start to finish. It’s almost sad when it comes to an end, considering Lentini’s solid performance.

Through his facial expressions alone, Lentini is able to convey a wide array of emotions and thanks to a tightly written script, his harrowing delivery and ability to use the space around him, the production is something special.

An everyman who has become the victim of a divorce and financial troubles, his character is someone many men can find a bit of themselves in. There’s nothing particularly wrong with him; in the end, there’s something more wrong with the people around him.

Excellent voice acting reinforces this, as the supporting cast, consisting of Gina Trebiani, Sarah Bonner, Hank Offinger, Krista Griffin, Hank H. Kim, Selene C. Hawks and Laurel Johnston get the job done. Even though their parts are all relatively short, they all add something to the play’s formula, whether it be drama or comedy. Through this, “Hold” is short play that gets its message across.

The world is sometimes a sad and terrible place. Sometimes you just want to fly away from it all.

While Lentini’s character doesn’t have the strength to fight against the dying of his own life’s light, you may look at your life a bit differently after this performance.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13821 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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