Office Hour

D

Since there’s a warning sign at the theater entrance, it’s no spoiler to advise you that there are gunshots in Julia Cho’s (Aubergine) new play at the Public Theater. The playwright takes the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech as her inspiration and turns it into what is basically a set of variations on gun violence for no good reason that I could find. The English department at an unnamed university does not know how to deal with Dennis (Ki Hong Lee), a troubled Korean-American writing student who hides behind sunglasses and a hoodie, never speaks and whose writings are so violently perverse that the other students are afraid to come to class. In the first scene we meet three instructors — David (Greg Keller; Animal, Belleville), who flunked Dennis and is convinced that Dennis is responsible for anonymous negative reviews against him; Genevieve (Adeola Role; Eclipsed), a ringer for Nikki Giovanni who warned against the real-life shooter-to-be and threatened to resign if he were not removed from her class; and Gina (Sue Jean Kim; Aubergine, The End of Longing), his new instructor, who David and Genevieve think might be able to draw Dennis out and get him to seek help because of their shared Asian-American background. The bulk of the play consists of Dennis’s visit to Gina’s office hour, seen in several versions, all of which end badly, with an escalating level of violence. If the playwright’s intention was to show how easily we become desensitized to repetitive violence, she did succeed at that. Unfortunately I thought the main effect of the play was to trivialize an important topic. The actors are fine, although Ki Hong Lee does not fit the description of Dennis as extremely unattractive. Takeshi Kata’s (The Profane) office set has the right look and mysteriously emerges from the dark, no doubt a very expensive effect. Kaye Voyce’s (After the Blast) costumes befit the characters well. Bray Poor’s sound design is alarmingly effective. Neel Keller (Forever) directed. Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission.

Aubergine *** B

Julia Cho’s new play at Playwrights Horizons is a flawed, uneven work, but it packs an emotional wallop. Ray (Tim Kang), an assimilated Korean-American chef, moves in with his estranged father (Stephen Park) to care for him during his final days. Ray’s former girlfriend Cornelia (Sue Jean Kim) forgives him and pitches in to help. Lucien (Michael Potts), a refugee from a war-torn African country, is the kindly, helpful home hospice nurse. Ray’s uncle (Joseph Steven Yang) flies in from Korea as soon as hears about his brother’s condition. Diane (Jessica Love) is a wealthy foodie who appears in the opening and final scenes (and, in my humble opinion, should be excised). A common thread that stitches the play together is the important role of food in our memories and family relationships. Each character gets a food-centered monologue. Some of the dialog is in Korean with translations projected on the rear wall. There are many engaging moments, but they don’t fit together all that well. Some trimming would improve the play, especially dropping the facile ending. Derek McLane’s high-concept scenic design is dominated by a huge semicircular wooden wall that looks like the side of a huge vat. It parts and swings away to reveal a semicircular interior with partial concentric rings. The circle of life, perhaps? Jennifer Moeller’s costumes are appropriate to each character. Kate Whoriskey’s direction is a bit sluggish at times. Don’t see it when you are hungry. You also might want to avoid it you have recently faced or are about to face the loss of a loved one. Running time: 2 hours 10 minutes including intermission.