Miles for Mary

B

This is the first offering in a new initiative by Playwrights Horizons — the Redux Series, which will remount well-received off-off-Broadway plays deemed worthy of a larger audience. The Mad Ones, a five-person New York company “dedicated to creating visceral, ensemble-driven, highly detailed theatrical experiences that examine and illuminate American nostalgia,” premiered this work in 2016 at the Bushwick Starr. The play is set in the phys ed faculty’s office of Garrison High School in Garrison, Ohio from 1988 to 1989. Five faculty members, including three coaches, the AV guy and the AP English teacher, are gathered to begin planning the ninth annual Miles for Mary telethon to raise money for scholarships. A sixth committee member, absent for unspecified reasons, joins the proceedings via a balky speakerphone. The telethon is a memorial to a talented student athlete who was killed in an auto accident. The play basically consists of moments from this committee’s meetings over the course of a year. Along the way, we learn bits and pieces about the teachers and their relationships. The meetings are a hilarious case study in group dynamics run amok. Psychobabble is the lingua franca. Techniques that might serve teachers well in the classroom are not so successful when applied to each other. After a long, slow buildup, one of the teachers has a spectacular meltdown. There is much to enjoy here. The writing by Marc Bovino, Joe Curnutte, Michael Dalto, Lila Neugebauer (dir. The Wolves, The Antipodes) and Stephanie Wright Thompson, in collaboration with Sarah Lunnie and the creative ensemble of Amy Staats and Stacey Yen, negotiates a delicate balance between realism and satire. The ensemble (all the above minus director Neugebauer and dramaturg Lunnie) is flawless. The scenic design by Amy Rubin (All the Fine Boys) and the costumes by Asta Bennie Hostetter (Men on Boats, Fulfillment Center) recreate the look of the period down to the smallest detail. It’s all well-observed and often amusing, but becomes repetitive after a while. “Do More” may be the committee’s motto, but no one is quite sure what “more” means. As one teacher observes, sometimes less is more. Running time: one hour 55 minutes; no intermission.