The Headlands

B

The folks at LCT3 are doing playwright Christopher Chen (Caught) a disservice by describing his likable new play as “contemporary noir.” While the setting is San Francisco and there is an unexplained death to be solved, the play does not really recall the world of classic noir films. Our amiable but unreliable narrator is Henry (Aaron Yoo; Where Do We Live?), a 30-ish Chinese-American Google engineer who, with the assistance of his girlfriend Jess (Mahira Kakkar; Miss Witherspoon), enjoys trying to solve cold cases. He often breaks the fourth wall to address the audience. The case he is currently investigating is about the shooting of a man ten years prior. While it was called a home burglary gone awry, there are some loose ends that suggest otherwise. We soon learn that the man shot was Henry’s father. Henry’s investigation leads him to discover a series of increasingly upsetting family secrets that call into question almost everything he thought he knew about his family. Along the way, his increasing obsession with solving the mystery alienates his girlfriend. The story is told mainly in flashback and makes heavy use of projections to set the scene. The unreliability of memory is a recurring theme. Bits and pieces of Henry’s memories change their significance with each discovery. Laura Kai Chen (Dan Cody’s Yacht) and Johnny Wu (Chinglish) are effective as Henry’s parents. Mia Katigbak (Awake and Sing) plays an older version of Henry’s mother as well as her no-nonsense best friend. Henry Stram (JUNK, Network) doubles as Henry’s father’s business partner Walter and as the detective who investigated the crime. Edward Chin-Lyn (Veil Window Conspiracy) is Tom, whose connection I shall not reveal. The set by Kimie Nishikawa (The Light) is a virtually bare gray space that is often covered with Ruey Horng Sun’s (King Kong) projected photographs and film clips. Tilly Grimes’s (Underground Railroad Game) costumes are apt. Knud Adams (Paris) direction is fluid. It’s an intriguing story which one wishes went a little deeper. The subplot about Henry’s relationship with his girlfriend is a definite weak spot. Nevertheless, I thought the play showed promise and was worth seeing. Also, it was good to see Asian-American actors have an opportunity. Running time: 90 minutes; no intermission.

Ain't No Mo'

B+

I am sorry that I was unable to score a ticket to Jordan E. Cooper’s funny, fierce satire about racism in America earlier in in its run at The Public Theater so I could have urged you to see it. Since it closes on May 5, I won’t take up much of your time with my remarks about it except to say that this 24-year-old recent graduate of The New School’s College of Performing Arts is a playwright to watch. 35 years after George C. Wolfe’s “The Colored Museum,” Cooper has written — and stars in — this collection of scenes from the African-American experience that are loosely tied together by the notion that all American blacks have, sometime in the not very distant future, been offered free one-way plane tickets to Dakar. Cooper plays Peaches, the assertive gate agent for Flight 1619, the final flight to Africa. The other five actors — Fedna Jacquet, Marchant Davis, Simone Recasner, Ebony Marshall-Oliver and Crystal Lucas-Perry — all fine, are unfortunately only identified as passengers 1 through 5, so it is difficult to single anyone out for special praise. They assume many roles in a series of scenes that take place in locations as varied as a funeral, an abortion clinic, the set of a “Housewives”-style reality show, the dining room of a wealthy assimilated black family and a prison. As often happens in a collection of this sort, the quality of the scenes varies widely, with more hits than misses. Even the weaker ones usually make up in energy what they lack in coherence. The scenic design by Kimie Nishikawa (The Light), the costumes by Montana Levi Blanco (Daddy) and the hair, wig and makeup design by Cookie Jordan all enhance the production substantially. Director Stevie Walker-Webb occasionally loses momentum near the end of the play. I was glad I caught it before it closed and look forward to seeing what Mr. Cooper does next. Running time: one hour 50 minutes; no intermission.

The Light

C+

The program for Loy A. Webb’s drama at MCC Theater’s spiffy new home on W. 52nd Street specifies that the play is set on October 5, 2018. That is the day of the Senate’s cloture vote leading to the confirmation of Justice Kavanaugh the following day. The action takes place in real time that evening at the upscale Hyde Park condo of Genesis (Mandi Masden; Our Lady of Kibeho, The Piano Lesson), an attractive woman approaching 40 who is principal of a prestigious charter school for black students. Genesis is frazzled because one her white teachers stirred up a hornet’s nest by posting a pro-Kavanaugh message online. Rashad (McKinley Belcher III; The Royale), a hunky fireman who, with his mother’s help, is raising a 4-year-old daughter abandoned by her mother, arrives bearing two gifts to celebrate the second anniversary of their first date. The first gift is exactly what Genesis wanted, but the second gift, coveted tickets to a concert by a rock star she disapproves of, sets her off. Genesis takes a long time to admit the reasons for her antipathy to the rock star. One of Genesis’s gifts for Rashad raises a new issue late in the play. What started as a celebration becomes an extended argument over who has it worse, black men or black women. It resembles a mashup of themes underlying the Black Lives Matter and Me Too movements. Both Genesis and Rashad have incidents in their past that make it difficult to achieve mutual understanding. As the play turns didactic, the freshness and vitality take a hit, which is a shame because the beginning is so promising. The acting is very strong and the set by Kimie Nishikawa is sure to evoke real estate envy. Emilio Sosa’s (The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess) costumes are appropriate. Director Logan Vaughn (Black Flag, Love Letters to a Dictator) occasionally lets the pace lag, The result is a flawed but interesting play. Running time: one hour 45 minutes; no intermission.