The New Englanders

B

In Jeff Augustin’s (Little Children Dream of God) absorbing new play at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Stage II, we meet a handful of residents of a picture-perfect New England town, plus one interloper. The central character is Eisa (Karla Young; Pretty Hunger), the 17-year-old mixed-race daughter of an interracial same-sex marriage. The Caucasian father is Samuel Stein (Patrick Breen; Next Fall, Fuddy Meers), a tech salesman whose job takes him out of town on alternate weeks. He sees life through rose-colored glasses that show him only what we wants to see, uninfluenced by reality. Aaron (Teagle F. Bougere; Socrates, Beast in the Jungle), the African-American biological father and primary parent, wanted to be a writer but ended up stifled in a dead-end part-time newspaper job. Now that Eisa is leaving the nest, Aaron would like to move to the city, but Samuel resists. The couple have spent many a session with an unseen feckless therapist whose platitudes have been of little benefit. Growing up different in a virtually all-white environment has made Eisa hard-edged and willful. She is eager to start a better life at NYU. Her unhappy English teacher Miss Charpie (Crystal Finn; Bobbie Cleary, Pocatello) thinks Eisa is her only bright student, but locks horns with her when she fails to complete an assignment. Aaron is visited by his Latino first love Raul (Javier Muñoz; Hamilton), with whom he broke up cruelly when they graduated high school. Raul has become a drifter, not putting down roots anywhere. His visit stirs Aaron’s thoughts about the road not taken. Atlas (Uly Schlesinger), who goes to high school with Eisa, works at a Chuck E. Cheese, where he sells pot on the side to earn money for college. He meets Samuel under rather implausible circumstances. Atlas is also eager to learn about the music that Eisa listens to. She’s a big Lauryn Hill fan, which would have meant more to me if I had heard her music. I guess the royalties would have been too high. The confrontation between Eisa and her teacher gradually escalates to dangerous heights. The consequences of Eisa’s actions lead Aaron to confront Samuel about the deep fractures in their marriage. My initial warm feelings grew cooler as the plot grew messier. Nevertheless, the play has much to recommend it. Seeing the dynamics of an interracial, same-sex marriage from the viewpoint of the child is enlightening. Getting a glimpse of the drug problem typical of small New England towns is timely. The lead actors are all very good. Ms. Young shows great promise. The role of Raul is too underwritten to show much of Mr. Munoz’s talent. Saheem Ali’s (The Rolling Stone) direction is smooth. Arnulfo Maldonado’s (Sugar in Our Wounds, School Girls) set is both attractive and functional. Dede Ayite’s (Slave Play) costumes are appropriate. I wish the last 15 minutes were better, but even with this reservation, the play is worth seeing. At the performance I attended, the audience was refreshingly diverse. Running time: one hour 45 minutes; no intermission.

Little Children Dream of God **

The mission of Roundabout Underground is to present works by emerging playwrights in the Black Box Theatre below the Laura Pels. In past years they have presented promising plays by Stephen Karam (Speech and Debate) and Joshua Harmon (Bad Jews.) Currently onstage is this ambitious work by Jeff Augustin, which deals mainly with Haitian refugees in Miami. We meet seven vivid characters. Sula (Carra Patterson) is a young pregnant woman from Haiti who struggles to delay her baby’s arrival until she is in the U.S. She is haunted by nightmares about her past. Her baby does not cry. Joel (Maurice Jones) is the son of the landlord who has turned his apartment house into a de facto refuge for immigrants. Carolyn (Deirdre O’Connell) is a nursing home aide with 11 children who lives in one of the apartments and who reluctantly takes Sula in. Vishal (Chris Myers) is the resident drag queen who sometimes sits for Carolyn’s children. Madison (Crystal Lucas-Perry) is Joel’s stereotypically yuppy cousin who hires Sula as her nanny. Manuel (Gilbert Cruz) is a dying patient of Carolyn’s who is estranged from his children. The Man (Carl Hendrick Louis) is the figure from Sula’s past who figures prominently in her nightmares. Some of the topics touched upon include the struggle to preserve a family heritage, the corrosive effects of gentrification, the disappearance of God, the attempt to escape one’s past, the efficacy of voodoo and the pain of dying alone unloved. I wished that the playwright had narrowed his scope and presented fewer but more fully developed themes. Some of the actors had trouble maintaining a Creole accent. Andrew Boyce’s flexible set design is simple but effective. Jennifer Caprio’s costumes are appropriate. Giovanna Sardelli’s direction cannot hide the unevenness of the material. Augustin shows promise if his control can catch up with his ambition. Running time: 2 hours including intermission.

Note: Judging from tonight’s theatergoers, Roundabout’s marketing to nontraditional audiences has been far more successful than LCT3’s. Tickets are $5 cheaper ($20 vs. $25), but I doubt that difference is significant.