The theme of Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea is, “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” Bad Hemingway By The Bay (A Bad Memory Play), written, directed, and performed by Gary De Mattei, responds to this statement with the question, “You wanna bet?” De Mattei wrote his solo play in free-verse and while he tells his story playing twenty different characters he is accompanied by an ensemble of musicians underscoring the action with an original jazz score and sound effects. So, in essence, Bad Hemingway By The Bay is a solo performance piece…with other people.