Aubergine

In what can be described as a somber, quiet, and delicious entree, Julia Cho's new play, Aubergine, has made its debut over at Playwrights Horizons.  It's about food, memories, family, and death.  Yes, you read that correctly - death.

I hope this won't come as a spoiler given the somber mood of the play, but yes, there is a death.  It's ever-present during most of the play - an old man dying in a bed on stage.

Say what you will, but Ms. Cho's linkage of food and the memories it evokes gels nicely throughout the play and resonates a message that despite the discord and frustrations of families and daily life that we should cherish the "good stuff" always.  On Ms. Cho's stage that good stuff is food.

Ray (Tim Kang) is the young (allegedly only) son of his (unnamed character) father (Steven Park).  Father is dying.  Except for a few flashbacks and funny, touching memories, he is virtually dead in his dining room in a hospital bed the entire play.  His caregiver, Lucien, (Michael Potts) is a wise, calm, ethereal man who seems to know about death and dying as it is his life's profession as a hospice caregiver.  Ray's Uncle (his father's long absent brother), Lucien, (Joseph Steven Yang) arrives from Korea to mourn his brother and say his peace.  Cornelia (Sue Jean Kim) is Ray's on-again-off-again quirky girlfriend.  Perhaps one of the most interesting interlopers in this tale is the book-ended character, Diane (Jessica Love) who opens and then closes the play.  She weaves an overly self-indulgent tale in the beginning and appears in the end to tie it all together.

Ms. Cho's storytelling ability is fantastic.  The mood is both somber and recognizable.  Her characters are mostly real - although we would all like to think we are a bit more prepared for a parent to die than perhaps Ray was - but I suspect there is a bit of Ray in all of us.

You will leave the theatre with a sense of finality, a sense of mortality, and possibly a little bit of a renewed sense of life and purpose.  Bravo Ms. Cho.

Who knew the power of Pastrami?

Snow Geese

Headliner, Mary Louise-Parker, may be listed first in the cast due to her star-power, but this one's got a true ensemble cast - every single one of them superb actors from start to finish - including MLP.

I didn't even recognize the fantastic Danny Burstein as Max, the older German Uncle or the lovely Victoria Clark as a tightly wound religious Aunt.  But even more impressive were the two sons - newly enlisted soldier and eldest, favored son, Evan Jonigkeit (Duncan) and younger, less favored and quietly smarter son, Brian Cross (Arnold).

The chemistry between Duncan and Arnold was remarkable.  Despite their mother's lifetime of overt differing treatment, we see just how the family will survive after the death of their father, Teddy (Christopher Innvar).

Striking sets, interesting and often funny dialogue pepper the evening and at 2 hours 20 minutes (including the intermission) was timed just right.

Bravo on your Broadway debut Brian Cross! We definitely need to see more of you.

bottom of the world

A new work by Lucy Thurber (last Atlantic production was Scarcity with Kristen Johnson and Michael T. Weiss) made it's debut on Stage 2 at the Atlantic Theatre Company this past week.  Bottom of the World explores the cycle of life and death via a complex set of family relationships and visions of an "alternate family" as seen through both the author of a recently published book (the dead sister) and the reader (the surviving sister).    What made it slightly more complex was that the story was told through the eyes of a family that had two brothers, rather than the two sisters and each had parents - all of course played by the same actors in parallel.  Yikes!  Attention must be paid.

There are a few facts I wish we knew up front - such as why one sister was black and one was white.  Blind casting, i thought?  Alas, they had two separate fathers.  In the meantime, I had already noticed that the brothers who paralleled the sisters were also white and black.  Then somewhere in the middle we learn the one sister was a lesbian.  There was no parallel gay character, but indeed other concepts ran in parallel.  Focus, Focus!

I will note there was some delicious talent in this one.  Intelligent writing, for sure (Lucy) - but I'd go on to say a few stand-outs were cast - Crystal A. Dickinson (Abagail) and Aubrey Dollar (Susan/Dana), Brendan Griffin (Josh) and Brandon J. Dirden (Ely).   Kudos to the set designer,  Walt Spangler.  I think all those 2x4's that were the set were supposed to represent the tangled roots of a tree turned upside down (just like the play's logo).  Sometimes your life can get turned upside down - is what I took away as the symbolism.  The musicians (a banjo and a fiddle) lingering up in the tree (the roots, i suppose) provided tasteful and melodic background and mood music - just like the birds would.  Nice touch.

Woven throughout the tapestry of this play is the theme that we should all notice the ones we love (i.e pay attention!) and love the ones we notice.   Well, I noticed this play on-line today - and I really loved it.  I hope you get the chance too -  before it's too late.