Small Engine Repair From Stage to Screen

0:00You're listening to a podcast right now, driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own is free and easy. Upload an episode, and we distribute it to Apple podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and hundreds more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads like this. Even with just 10 listeners a month. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start free at RSS.com. You know, usually when you take your car into a repair shop, there's this comforting expectation of pure binary precision. Oh, absolutely. It's a very black and white environment. Right. You hear a weird rattle. The mechanic pops the hood, shines a flashlight on a, you know, afraid serpentine belt, and just points to it. Broken or not broken? Exactly. Broken or not broken? Yeah. It's a problem you can solve by simply swapping out a part with a wrench.

1:01It's deeply satisfying because, well, it's visible. Mechanical failures play by the rules of physics. Yeah, they follow the rules. We like our problems to be easily categorized, you know, diagnosed and repaired. But what happens when the thing that's fundamentally broken isn't the alternator, but the guy holding the wrench? Oh, that's a whole different ball game. Right. Step into the world of unresolved trauma, fractured friendships, and like toxic pride, that need little toolkit is completely useless. Completely. There is no diagnostic manual for a collapsing human being. No, there really isn't. When the machinery breaking down is the emotional state of the people in the room, you are operating in total, total diagnostic muddy waters. Yeah. You can't just unbolt a decade of resentment and install a new one. I love that unbolting resentment. And that is exactly where we are heading today. I want to welcome you. Yes, you listening right now to this custom, tailored, deep dive.

2:02We've got a really great one today. We do. We have a fascinating stack of sources in front of us, digging into the history, the script, and the really unlikely journey of 2011 play called Small Engine Repair. Rindmai John Polono. Right, John Polono. Our mission today is to figure out how this incredibly claustrophobic, just aggressively gritty play about blue collar guys in a New Hampshire repair shop exploded. Out of nowhere, really. Completely out of nowhere. How it went from an intimate Los Angeles theater to an off-broadway hit, and eventually fought its way into becoming a feature film. Which is an incredibly rare trajectory. It is. And we are going to look at how it survived the totally unpredictable turbulent waters of Hollywood scheduling along the way. Okay, let's unpack this. I am very ready for this. And to get us fully immersed, you'll notice the visual backdrop for today's deep dive has shifted. Oh, yeah, it's grim in here. It's a dimly lit, violently unglamorous mechanics garage.

3:02We've got, you know, oil stains seeping into the concrete. Tools just haphazardly scattered everywhere. Exactly. And heavy shadows stretching across the floor. It perfectly reflects the tense, almost suffocating atmosphere of the story we're exploring. I mean, I can practically smell the stale beer and the exhaust fumes right now. That's the vibe. So let's establish the geography and the stakes here. We are in Manchester, New Hampshire. It is cold. It's remote. And we are locked inside this small engine repair shop long after closing time. Very isolated. Yeah, very isolated. The narrative centers around three guys. Yeah. I've got Frank who owns the shop and is the one orchestrating this mysterious late night gathering. He's the host, basically. Then there's Swayno and Paki. And these are three ex-high school buddies. But the text makes a very specific point of identifying them as, quote, past their prime. Which is such a devastatingly loaded phrase, isn't it? It really is. It hurts to even hear it. Assar prime isn't just about age. I mean, it's a psychological trap.

4:03How so? Well, it immediately tells you that these characters are living their lives entirely in the rearview mirror. For guys like this, high school was the apex of their existence. Right. The glory days. The brotherhood, the lack of responsibility, the perceived dominance. That was their peak. Everything since then has been a slow grinding decline. Oh, yeah. They are hoarding their past in a room that is literally designed for fixing the present. That is the perfect way to look at it. They're surrounded by broken machines, but they don't have the emotional vocabulary to fix their own lives. Exactly. So they're drinking, they're hanging out. And Frank clearly has a secret agenda for the night that he isn't sharing. He's got a plan. He's got a plan. And then the catalyst walks through the door. The young guy named Chad. The interloper. Right. Chad is a preppy, well-connected college jock. And his arrival instantly ignites what the source material describes as a long-simmering animosity. Which is a great phrase.

5:04It really is. Yeah. The whole set of feels to me like a locked room mystery mixed with a pressure cooker. When you take a confined space, you trap these older working class guys who feel completely left behind by society. And you throw in a privileged college kid who has this entire life ahead of him. It's a brutal class collision. So I have to ask, why do you think a setting like an off-hours engine repair shop is the perfect crucible for exploring abstract concepts like masculinity and regret? Well, what's fascinating here is how the playwright uses the physical environment to amplify that collision. The repair shop is distinctly utilitarian. It just function over form. Right. It's coated in grease and dirt. It represents the grit of unresolved history. And then you drop Chad into it. In his nice clothes. Exactly. Chad represents the pristine, upwardly mobile outside world. A world these three older men have no access to. But the text is very careful with that phrase, long-simmering animosity. It hints that Chad is really just the match. Oh, interesting.

6:04So he's not the bomb itself. No. Well, dynamite is the history between Frank, Sueno, and Paki. The tension isn't just about the outsider. Prince about themselves. It's about the rot inside their own friendship, the toxicity of their shared masculinity. Right. Because when men like this don't know how to process their own failures, they just turn on each other. Or they turn on the easiest target in the room. Always. It's deflection. Deflection, totally. So we have this bleak, freezing, New Hampshire setting. But the wild irony of this play's production history is that it didn't start anywhere near New England. Not even close. Not even close. To trace its origins, we have to transition to the glitzy, completely unexpected place where it first founded audience, Sunny Los Angeles, California. Which is a massive geographic and cultural whiplash. It really is. You are taking a story about forgotten, blue-collar New Englanders and premiering it in the capital of the entertainment industry. It's exactly. The premier is in March, 2011, at a venue literally called theater theater.

7:07Great name. I know. Right. It's produced by Rogue Machine Theater. Now, this is an intimate 99-seat Los Angeles theater. Very small. The kind of place where you are sitting so close to the stage, you can practically feel the actors breathing on you. There's nowhere to hide. Right. And it's directed by Andrew Block and the playwright, John Polano. Not only with the script, but he's starring in it as Frank, the shop owner. Which adds a whole other layer of intensity. And we should note that Polano and Block had a crucial history together. Oh, did they? Yeah. They had previously collaborated on a 2010 play called Lost and Found. Okay. So they knew each other's rhythms. Exactly. In the theater, especially in a piece, this raw and volatile trust is everything. A director and a playwright with a shared shorthand can push the actors into much darker, more uncomfortable, emotional spaces. Because they know they're safe. Right. Because they know the safety net is there. The production team also did something remarkable here. Instead of just, you know, suggesting the setting, they essentially built a functioning,

8:12suffocating, new Hampshire garage right in the middle of Southern California. Oh, wow. The lighting, the sound design, it all conspired to trap the audience in that room with those men. That sounds incredible. And then you look at the original cast. You got Polano as Frank, Michael Redfield playing Packey, Josh Helman playing Chad, the college kid. Yep. And playing Swano, the alpha male of the older group is John Bernfall, a huge casting win. Massive. The play opens and it doesn't just do well. I mean, it explodes. It gets massive critical acclaim. The run gets extended for months and it eventually transfers to the Beverly Hills playhouse. Where Donnie Smith actually stepped in to replace Bernfall eventually. Right. Right. We're talking to Ovation Awards for Best Play Intimate Theater, Acting Ensemble, Director. The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards. Yes. For production, direction, writing, and the backstage carland awards. Which is a monumental feat, you know. The LA theater scene is incredibly saturated. Oh, I bet.

9:12And getting critics to universally agree on a gritty independent production is rare. It is. But here's where I have to push back a little bit on the narrative of pure organic theatrical success. Okay. The sources openly acknowledge that the play's popularity in 2011 was heavily boosted by the fact that John Bernfall was starring his shame on AMC's The Walking Dead at the exact same time, which was huge. Huge. The Walking Dead was a global phenomenon. Right. So here's where it gets really interesting. A play about New Hampshire townies becomes a smash hit in Hollywood, partly because one of the actors is famous for fighting zombies on TV. It's quite the paradox. It is. My question is, with Bernthal bringing in the ANC TV crowd, does that kind of star power risk overshadowing the actual narrative of a small ensemble play? Doesn't it just become the John Bernthal show? It's a completely valid skepticism. And you're right. Star power absolutely changes the gravity of a room. It has to. Celebrity brings foot traffic.

10:13People who would never set foot in a 99-seat theater will line up around the block to see the guy from their favorite AMC show. Right. Connect this to the bigger picture and look at how the awards were distributed. It paints a very different picture. Foot traffic buys tickets, but it does not win you the acting ensemble award from the notoriously discerning Los Angeles theater critics. Ah, that's true. An ensemble award means everyone pulled their weight. Exactly. The fact that the entire group, one ensemble awards, proves that the collective chemistry and the writing held up under the spotlight. That makes sense. Polono also won for his writing. When a TV star brings an audience into the room, the audience usually leaves talking about the star. Right. Right. But when the text is brilliant, the audience leaves talking about the story. The script had to deliver the goods and the awards confirm that it did. So Bernthal got them in the door, but Polono's dialogue kept them in their seats. That's exactly it. Okay, I see that. It's like using a megaphone to get people's attention, but once they're listening, you

11:14actually have to have something profound to say. Which they did. And clearly, small engine repair did. So they have this massive, undeniable success on the West Coast. The momentum is huge. And the logical next step for any hit American play is New York. The Holy Grail. Right. Off-Broadway is the ultimate proving ground. But the very Hollywood success that injected so much life into the LA run suddenly becomes its biggest existential threat. Ah, yes. The double-edged sort of casting actors whose screen careers are actively exploding. Yes. So MCC Theatre in New York steps up. They plan a major off-Broadway run for their 2012 to 2013 season. Very prestigious. Very. The dream scenario is in place. Polono and Bernthal are going to reprise their roles. They're going to take this fraternal magic they built in LA and drop it right into New York. But then television comes calling again. Both Polono and Bernthal get cast in a major TNT mini-series called Mob City. Oh, wow. And in the hierarchy of entertainment scheduling, television production schedules are the

12:19Apex Predator. They really are. Theater companies simply do not have the financial leverage to force an actor to turn down a major network television role. You just can't compete. So MCC Theatre has to delay the play. They push it to the 2013 to 2014 season. Which is tough. You can almost feel the momentum stalling. But then it gets worse. Pushing the schedule back creates a secondary conflict. By July 2013, it's officially announced that John Bernthal has to drop out of the New York run entirely. Wow. He has to seed the role of Swano due to scheduling conflicts. That is a seismic blow to a production. It's devastating. Think about this from John Polono's perspective. You've written this deeply personal, incredibly aggressive play. You spent months in a tiny LA theater bleeding and sweating with this specific group of guys. Building that trust. Building this hyper-specific raw chemistry. It's like a rock band losing their lead guitarist right before a massive international tour. That is a great analogy.

13:19You know exactly how the other guy plays. You know his rhythms. And suddenly he's just gone. So what does this all mean for Polono? He wrote this thing, acted in it, built the chemistry in LA, and now he has to rebuild that fraternal magic with a mostly brand new cast on the East Coast. How does a play survive that? Well, it survives because the foundation wasn't the actors. The foundation was the architecture of the script itself. Interesting. This is the ultimate stress test for any playwright. If a play only works because of the chaotic lightning and a bottle charisma of its original cast, then it isn't a great play. It's at a great performance. It's a great performance event, exactly. The true test of dramatic literature is whether it can survive recasting and reinterpretation. So the script is essentially the blueprint? Precisely. The blueprint is structurally sound, a new director, and a new crew of actors can build the house. Right. Because when the play finally opens at the Lucille-Lortell Theatre in November 2013, it is a radically altered

14:20landscape. Very different team. Polono is still there playing Frank. But the rest of the cast is brand new. James Ranson takes over his packy, Keegan Allen steps in his chat. And stepping into the massive void left by Bernthal is James Badgedale playing Swayno. All incredibly talented actors though. For sure. Plus, they have an entirely new director, Joe Bonnie. And Joe Bonnie is a heavyweight in the New York Theatre scene. But bringing her in means changing the entire geometry of how the play is staged and felt. And yet, it worked. Yeah. The fact that Joe Bonnie in this new cast, Badgedale, Ranson, Allen, could step into this grimy repair shop, find their own distinct rhythms, and make the play explode all over again, proves that Polono's themes are universally resonant. They aren't tied to one person. Exactly. The concepts of toxic masculinity, the haunting nature of regret, and the desperation of feeling left behind by society aren't reliant on John Bernthal being in the room. They're human conditions. They are human conditions. And the New York Theatre establishment recognized that. They certainly did.

15:21The off-broadway production secured prestigious nominations, including a drama desk award for set design by Richard Hoover, and a Joey Calloway award for Joe Bonnie's directing. The play proved it wasn't just a vehicle for one specific group of friends, the engine itself was built to last. I see what you did there. The engine couldn't resist. So having conquered both coasts, proving it could thrive in the intimate, celebrity adjacent spaces of Los Angeles, and then surviving the brutal, discerning crucible of off-broadway in New York, the story of small-engine repair evolves again. It's the gift that keeps on giving. It moves from the temporary, ephemeral world of live theatre into a permanent medium. Yes, the transition to immortality. In 2014, the play was officially published by Dramatist's play service. Which is a very big deal. It's a huge milestone because it means theatre companies, colleges, and community theatres anywhere in the world could buy the script and perform it. But the truly staggering part of this timeline happens a full decade after its original premiere.

16:25This is my favorite part of the story. It's wild. A feature film adaptation is produced in 2019 and eventually released on September 10, 2021. Ten years later. Ten years later. Yeah. And the person who wrote the screenplay, John Polono, the person who directed the feature film, John Polono. That level of ongoing, uncompromising creative control in the film industry is vanishingly rare. I mean, it's almost unheard of, right? Almost unheard of. Usually when Hollywood buys a successful independent play, the very first thing they do is politely thank the playwright, hand them a check, and hire a seasoned screenwriter to adapt it. Right. They take the keys away. Exactly. Then they hire an established film director and they cast a list movie stars who look great on a poster, completely abandoning the actors who originated the roles. Polono didn't let that happen. He wrote the play, he started it on stage, he weathered the storm of the New York recasting, he published it. And ten years later, he demanded the right to write and direct the feature film himself.

17:27The sheer patience and tenacity required to hold onto a project for a decade until you have the leverage to make it on your own terms is incredible. It really is. And to top it all off, he didn't cast shiny new A-listers for the film. He brought the original Los Angeles cast back. That's the best part. Polono, Bernthal, Helmen, he got the band back together. And this raises an important question about artistic ownership. Because this is where the artistic journey of the play becomes deeply profoundly meta. Oh, I like where you're going with this. Think about the underlying premise of the script. Small engine repair is fundamentally a story about ex-high school friends past their prime, getting together in a room to confront their shared messy history. By reuniting the original 2011 Los Angeles cast to shoot a film ten years later, Polono executed the ultimate commentary on his own theme of fraternity. Because the actors themselves had literally aged a decade. Exactly. They aren't just playing old friends, they're old friends.

18:29The guys who blood and sweat together in that tiny 99CLA theater back in 2011 were now standing on a movie set together. They had lived ten more years of life. That's so true. They experienced massive career successes, inevitable personal failures, and they likely harbored their own real life new regrets. You cannot manufacture that kind of history in a rehearsal room. No, you really can't. It's earned. When Bernthal and Polono look at each other on screen in that 2021 film, they are drawing on a decade of actual lived brotherhood. It infuses the film with a layer of authenticity that is incredibly rare. Yeah, I bet. They didn't just tell a story about the weight of time, they allowed time to literally wait them down before capturing it on camera. That is such a brilliant observation, life imitating art imitating life. The text was aging right alongside the people who created it. It takes the whole project from being just a cool indie movie to an actual document of their lives. It's the absolute purist execution of the concept.

19:32Which brings us to the end of our journey today. To pull all these threads together, I mean, small engine repair stands as a massive testament to the raw power of a TypeScript and deeply relatable human themes. Truly. A reminder that you don't need sprawling multi-million dollar budgets, massive CGI set pieces or exotic locations to captivate an audience. You really don't. Sometimes the most compelling drama in the world is just a closed-off, greasy repair shop, three guys who realize their best days are behind them, and a simmering secret waiting to detonate. That's all you need. The tension of human connection and the catastrophic failure of it is entirely enough to carry a story from a tiny stage in Los Angeles all the way to a future film. I think tracking the evolution of this play leaves us with a lot to chew on, particularly regarding that core premise of friends who are past their prime. Yeah, definitely. I want to leave you with a final thought to mull over a concept we might call unreliable nostalgia. Unreliable nostalgia. Okay.

20:32I want you to think about your own life. When you reunite with old friends from your youth, people you haven't seen in years, who are you actually talking to? Ooh, that's a good question. Are you genuinely connecting with the complex, changed, perhaps damaged person sitting in front of you today? Or are you just projecting onto them, interacting with the ghost of who they used to be? How much of that shared fraternity is a genuine, present day connection? And how much of it is just a desperate, mutual refusal to let the past go? How did it start? Are you actually trying to fix the engine of your friendship? Or are you both just staring at a broken machine pretending it still runs? Wow. Are you talking to the person or just the ghost of the past? That is a heavy, perfectly fitting question to end on. We were going to leave you to ponder that one on your own. I want to enthusiastically thank you for joining us on this exploration today. It's been a pleasure. We love taking these deep dives with you, sifting through the sources to find the real, beating

21:33heart, hiding beneath the surface of the story. Remember, sometimes the most complicated machinery to fix isn't under the hood of a car, it's the people standing around it. Take care, stay curious, and we'll talk to you next time. You're listening to a podcast right now, driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're in a podcast, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own podcast is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads just like this. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start your new podcast for free today at rss.com.