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?

Water by the Spoonful

A play about addiction, redemption, hope, and family.  It's a Pulitzer prize winning work by Quiara Alegria Hudes that reminds us of the absolute fragility of sobriety.

The second in a trilogy, it continues the exploration of Elliott (Armando Riesco), his family, and his personal demons.  Liza Colon-Zayas holds court as Odessa - with all her flaws and weaknesses laid bare on the stage in a triumphant performance.  The ever-present on-line chat room community of Chutes and Ladders (Frankie Faison) and Orangutn (Sue Jean Kim) captivate and, thru some sharp audio-visual assistance, are able to deliver an on-stage performance of the otherwise invisible.  Fountainhead (Bill Heck) bottles the anger and frustration and simmers with rage and self hatred with aplomb.  

The title of the play, you will learn, has to do with the circumstances of one of the characters' childhood experiences.  Only then will you truly understand the significance.

Assistance

Playwright Leslye Headland is likely good at a minimum of four things:  grammar, being an assistant, reading people, and writing plays.  Each of these traits is quite obvious from a brief, yet incredibly entertaining evening at Playwrights Horizons to take in a performance of Assistance.

Six mixed-up, shook-up, wired-up, young assistants get messed-up, chewed-up and spit-out by an un-seen, un-heard un-relenting, un-kind, president of the company.   Mr. David Weisgert, whom we never actually see or hear, is indolent, un-reasonable, demanding, and over-the-top, and drives these assistants – both literally and figuratively – crazy.

The goal in the office seems to be to get in (that’s hard) and get out  - “across the hall” as fast as you can (even harder).  Part dig on corporate America, part study of what drives people to crave these maddening jobs, and mostly just an hysterical, all-too-familiar composite of some bosses we once knew and truly hated.

Nick (Michael Esper) and Nora (Virginia Kull) work out their issues through flirting and eventually sex (in the office).  Jenny (Sue Jean Kim) gets cut while she’s still an intern, Vince (Lucas Near-Verbugghe), a bit of a creep, is the first to “make it out”.  Jenny (Amy Rosoff) brings her ice-cool British-game to the office and Justin, a.k.a Bird (Bobby Steggert) puts in his time on the road with the boss as his personal assistant, suffers the battle scars to prove it, and eventually “makes it” into the office too.  One by one they rise… and fall.

The dialogue is quick, the banter, believable and the non-stop telephone-ballet, quite impressive.  I’m not saying that any of these talented actors should ever be unemployed and working the phones – but either many of them have indeed suffered the pains of an office assistant job, or they are quick studies not only into the art, but also the emotional intensity.  Either that, or director Trip Cullman is one hell of a teacher.  

Maybe it’s a little bit of all that - so tightly wound and ready to explode each night - that makes Assistance an 80-minute romp on West 42^nd Street each and every night.