Cost of Living

B+

After a successful run at the Williamstown Theatre Festival last summer, Martyna Majok’s (Ironbound) powerful four-character drama has arrived at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Stage I at City Center. The lead character, Eddie (Victor Williams, Luck of the Irish), begins the play with a well-written and well-performed 10-minute monologue that reveals that he is a long-distance truck driver who recently lost his wife. Next we meet Jess (Jolly Abraham, Coram Boy), an attractive woman in her twenties who is applying for a job as helper to John (Gregg Mozgala), a Harvard-educated grad student with cerebral palsy who is confined to a wheelchair. Jess works as a barmaid and needs the extra income. In a flashback, we meet Eddie’s wife Ani (Katy Sullivan) who lost her legs in an accident and is a bundle of rage. Two of the play’s most moving scenes take place in bathrooms where we see Jess shaving and showering John and Eddie giving a bath (and possibly more) to Ani. The play's strengths include  not portraying the disabled characters simplistically and in giving equal time to the needs of their caregivers. Each character is vividly sketched to the point that I wished I knew more about them. Until the final scene, each character interacts with only one other character. In that scene a new heartbreaking connection is made. I wish the author had omitted a brief manipulative reversal at the very end. The entire production is first rate: the acting, the revolving set by Wilson Chin (Aubergine, My Mañana Comes), the character-appropriate costumes by Jessica Pabst (The Ruins of Civilization) and the smooth direction by Jo Bonney (By the Way, Meet Vera Stark). I read that the author expanded this work from a two-character play and the opening monologue. The combination was not totally successful; some of the stitches show. Nevertheless, seeing it is a worthwhile, if painful, experience. Running time: one hour 45 minutes, no intermission.

The Cost of Living (Broadway)

B+

Although I was favorably impressed by Martyna Majok’s four-character drama when MTC presented it off-Broadway five years ago, I was surprised when it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2018. I suspect that its skillful treatment of marginal people in our society played a significant role in their choice. MTC has decided to revive it and move it to its Broadway venue, the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Two of the characters are marginalized by disabilities – John by cerebral palsy and Ani by the loss of her legs in an accident. Gregg Mozgala and Katy Sullivan powerfully recreate these roles. John’s situation is mitigated by having a Harvard education and sufficient economic resources to hire a private aide. The other two characters are marginalized by economic hardship. John's newest aide, Jess (Kara Young; Clyde’s), is an attractive young woman who, although she had attended Princeton, supports herself by working as a late-night barmaid. Ani’s husband Eddie (David Zayas; Jesus Hopped the A Train, “Dexter”), whom we meet in the extended monologue that opens the play, is an unemployed truck driver haunted by Ani’s recent death. The bulk of the play is a series of scenes of Eddie and Ani alternating with scenes of John and Jess. Two of the play’s most moving scenes take place in bathrooms where we see Jess shaving and showering John and Eddie giving a bath to Ani. The play's strengths include not portraying the disabled characters simplistically and in giving equal time to the needs of their caregivers. Each character is vividly sketched to the point that I wanted to know more about them. Until the final scene, each character interacts with only one other. In that scene a new heartbreaking connection is made. I wish the author had omitted a brief manipulative reversal at the very end. The entire production is first rate: the acting, the revolving set by Wilson Chin (Aubergine, My Mañana Comes), the character-appropriate costumes by Jessica Pabst (The Ruins of Civilization), the dramatic lighting by Jeff Croiter (Bandstand, Falsettos) and the smooth direction by Jo Bonney (By the Way, Meet Vera Stark). Seeing it is a worthwhile, if sometimes painful, experience. Running time: one hour 50 minutes, no intermission.

Sanctuary City

C

Over a year and a half has passed since I last set foot in a theater. My exile ended today with a visit to the Lucille Lortel Theatre for New York Theatre Festival’s production of Martyna Majok’s Sanctuary City. I felt a mixture of eagerness and anxiety when I arrived at the theater. There were two lines, one for people with tickets in hand or on their phone and the other for will-call. I showed my ID, Excelsior Pass and ticket and found my seat. Even allowing for deliberately leaving empty seats between theatergoers, the size of the audience was far from the capacity. The usher patrolled the house reminding people to keep their masks on properly.

My expectations were rather high since I had liked Majok’s Cost of Living a lot and had found her immigrant drama queens flawed but interesting. Once again she has turned to the immigrant community for her subject. This time the focus is on two Latinx “dreamers” in Newark who are 17 when the play begins shortly after 9/11. I was moderately taken aback that the two leading characters were identified only as B and G. The benefit of depriving them of first names was not apparent to me. B (Jasai Chase-Owens; The Tempest and A MIdsummer Night’s Dream at the Public) is a bright hard-working young man whose mother decides to return to her homeland, leaving him alone in Newark. G (Sharlene Cruz; Red Bull/Hunter’s Mac Beth), a friend since third grade, has a mother who has brought home a series of abusive boyfriends who sometimes have included G in their abuse. She has often “crashed” with B for safety. Their sleeping together remains chaste, which should set off alarm bells for what follows. Just before G turns 18, she becomes an American citizen by virtue of her mother’s naturalization. To save B from a bleak future, G offers to marry him so he too can become a citizen. They rehearse answering the immigration officer’s likely questions to authenticate a marriage, Without clinching the deal, G goes off to Boston on a scholarship. Up to that point, the play has been highly stylized, with sentences and even fragments of sentences being repeated either with or without variation. Short scenes are repeated out of sequence for no apparent reason. I did not feel that the stylization enhanced the material. The style of the play becomes much more naturalistic when it jumps ahead almost four years. G has returned from Boston on a school break. B is strangely hostile to her. We then meet the third character, Henry (Austin Smith; Hamilton, An Octoroon), whose presence gives us new information about B. The rest of the play is mainly a contest between G and Henry to win B’s exclusive company. I found the story more than a little implausible. Specifically, I could not believe that G could have been so blind to B’s nature. I had trouble understanding what motivated her. All three actors are attractive and do justice to their roles. The abrupt shift in style midway through the play puzzled me. Rebecca Frecknell, Associate Director of London’s Almeida Theatre, is listed as director, but Caitlin Sullivan (Hundred Days at NYTW) is credited as Remount Director. The set by Tom Scutt consists mainly of a bare elevated platform; his costumes did not draw attention. Finally, I feel that the title is a misnomer. What is commonly understood by "sanctuary city" has almost nothing to do with the play.

While it was a pleasure to be back in a theater, I am sorry that the occasion was a bit of a disappointment. Running time: 100 minutes, no intermission.

queens

C+

This new drama by Martyna Majok (Ironbound) at LCT3’s Claire Tow Theater takes us to a basement in Queens where several immigrant women are living in a crowded illegal apartment. Most of them are from Eastern Europe, but one is from Honduras and another from Afghanistan. Most of the play is set in the basement in 2001, 2005 and 2017, but there are also scenes in Ukraine, Honduras and Georgia (the state, not the country). The jumping back and forth between years and places is occasionally confusing. Renia (a powerful Ana Reeder; The Big Knife), who we see rise from tenant to building owner, has left her young daughter behind and lives with that guilt. Inna (Sarah Tolan-Mee) is a young immigrant who suspects Renia might be her mother. Pelagiya (Jessica Love; Aubergine, The River), Aamani (Nadine Malouf; The Who and the What) and Isabella (Nicole Villamil) are three colorful residents who, unfortunately, disappear after Act One. Agata (Zuzanna Szadkowski) and Lera (Andrea Syglowski) have smaller but still important roles. Three of the actors (Mss. Love, Malouf and Villamil) also have a second role. The playwright captures the texture of life in the ad-hoc community formed by the women in the basement and offers some insight on what brought them there and what their hopes are. As a collection of character studies, the play succeeds, but as a coherent narrative, it needs work. There seems to be a trend this year to rush plays to production with really major revisions being made during previews. The set by Laura Jellinek seems too spacious for a basement apartment, but features a ceiling that lowers oppressively. Kaye Voyce’s costumes help define the characters. Danya Taymor has not been entirely successful in keeping the audience aware of when each scene takes place. Despite its flaws, the play offers a welcome glimpse at a group that has too often been overlooked. Running time: two hours 45 minutes including two intermissions.