The Well-Tempered Masochist

Billy Lodi's forte is not just in withstanding pain but in luxuriating in it, enlarging upon it, emotionally and dramatically--and in communicating the right amount of sass and brattiness to motivate a receptive sadist to give him "what he is asking for." It's a skill that requires as much toughness as sensitivity. It's also a game of cat and mouse--every good masochist having, I believe, an inner sadist, and vice versa. You look at Billy's other work at BG East and see the leer of the fiend as often as the grimace of the martyr, a ritualized mirror to the joys and anguishes of love.

Photos: Lodi versus Cameron Matthews in Mat Brats 2