Theater Review: Maple & Vine
Just How Far Will People Go to Be Happy? Maybe Back to the Past
By Lauren Yarger
Not happy with your life? Get rid of it and start an ideal one back in 1955 where things are simpler and everyone knows his or her place.
That's the solution for which one couple opts following the loss of their baby and a growing dissatisfaction with life in general in Jordan Harrison's new play, Maple and Vine, getting an Off-Broadway run at Playwrights Horizons.
Katha (Marin Ireland) isn't able to sleep following the loss or plug back into her management job at a publishing company or life in general. Her husband, Ryu (Peter Kim), doesn't seem to be able to help her through her depression -- he's struggling himself with a lack of satisfaction in his career as a plastic surgeon.
Enter Dean and Ellen (Trent Dawson and Jeanine Serralles), spokespersons for the Society of Dynamic Obsolescence, a sort of alter-reality housing development where it's always 1955. Housewives tend to their homes, husbands and children and husbands bring home the bacon. Boundaries are set and provide a vacation from reality and freedom the modern world doesn't offer.
Katha becomes increasingly intrigued and finally convinces Ryu to try living in the SDO for six months. This might be a way for the couple to resume sexual relations and produces a baby -- both things considered wifely duties and which Katha has avoided for the last six months. Transitioning to the Eisenhower era isn't as simple as it might seem, however. Katha needs to become Kathy and learn how to cook. Ryu, a Japanese-American, is given a menial job in a box-making plant. The couple's mixed-race marriage is tolerated because 1955 Americans felt guilty about the forced interment of Americans of Japanese descent during World War II, but it certainly isn't embraced. Even Kathy, sewing her own '50s frocks (IIlona Somogyl, design) and becoming increasingly involved in the life of the community, asks her neighbors to stop being so tolerant and make their experience of 1955 more realistic by directing some prejudice at them.
Will the couple adapt to the picture-perfect world of the past (depicted nicely by designer Alexander Dodge on movable metallic-framed sets and original music by Bray Poor), especially when reality keeps exposing the negative? Not is all as it seems, especially when Ryu spies Dean in a homosexual relationship with his prejudiced box-plant boss Roger (Redro Pascal).
The play poses some interesting questions, most looming perhaps, are how we choose to cope with unhappiness and why people choose to stay in a situation where they aren't happy, especially when leaving is an option. Folks in 1955, after all, didn't have a lot of freedom to choose whether or not they wanted to be a housewife or to live an openly gay lifestyle.
Director Anne Kauffman smoothly sets up some strong performances, especially from a nicely layered Ireland and from Pascal who does a very different second role as Katha's publishing colleague Omar, but there are a couple of flaws. It's not clear for a while who Dean and Ellen are -- are they Katha's fantasy? Are they a dream induced by sleeping pills? These answers seem more likely than the bizarre reality that they represent a community locked in the 1950s.
In addition, Kauffman takes a sexual encounter between Dean and Roger too far (a mistake made in 95 percent of scenes involving nudity and sex on stage these days). We really just need to know from the dialogue and perhaps a quick fastening of a belt that the characters have just had sex. We don't need to be there during the act itself. Frankly, if we need some sex on stage here (and we don't), a better choice would have been to let us see how Kathy and Ryu relate in their new circumstances or how gay Dean manages to get intimate with his wife and whether she finds it as satisfying as 1955 housewives are supposed to.
Maple and Vine runs through Dec. 23 at Playwrights Horizons, 416 West 42nd St., NYC. For information and tickets to tonight's performance, call 212) 279-4200 or visit http://www.playwrightshorizons.org.
Christians might also like to know:
-- God's name taken in vain
-- Language
-- Homosexuality
-- Sexual activity
-- Nudity
-- Sexual dialogue
Our reviews are professional reviews written without a religious bias. At the end of them, you can find a listing of language, content or theological issues that Christians might want to know about when deciding which shows to see.
** Mature indicates that the show has posted an advisory because of content. Usually this means I would recommend no one under the age of 16 attend.
My Bio
Lauren Yarger has written, directed and produced numerous shows and special events for both secular and Christian audiences. She co-wrote a Christian musical version of “A Christmas Carol” which played to sold-out audiences of over 3,000 in Vermont and was awarded the Vermont Bessie (theater and film awards) for “People’s Choice for Theatre.” She also has written two other dinner theaters, sketches for church services and devotions for Christian artists. Her play concept, "From Reel to Real: The Jennifer O'Neill Story" was presented as part of the League of professional Theatre Women's Julia's reading Room Series in New York.
Shifting from reviewing to producing, Yarger owns Gracewell Productions, which produced the Table Reading Series at the Palace Theater in Waterbury, CT. She trained for three years in the Broadway League’s Producer Development Program, completed the Commercial Theater Institute's Producing Intensive and other training and produced a one-woman musical about Mary Magdalene that toured nationally and closed with an off-Broadway run.
She was a Fellow at the National Critics Institute at the O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT. She wrote reviews of Broadway and Off-Broadway theater (the only ones you can find in the US with an added Christian perspective) at
http://reflectionsinthelight.blogspot.com/.
She is editor of The Connecticut Arts Connection (
http://ctarts.blogspot.com), an award-winning website featuring theater and arts news for the state. She was a contributing editor for BroadwayWorld.com. She previously served as theater reviewer for the Manchester Journal-Inquirer, Connecticut theater editor for CurtainUp.com and as Connecticut and New York reviewer for American Theater Web.
She is a Co-Founder of the Connecticut Chapter of the League of Professional Theatre Women. She is a former vice president and voting member of The Drama Desk.
She is a freelance writer and playwright (member Dramatists Guild of America). She is a member if the The Outer Critics Circle (producer of the annual awards ceremony) and a member of The League of Professional Theatre Women, serving as Co-Founder of the Connecticut Chapter.
Yarger was a book reviewer for Publishers Weekly A former newspaper editor and graduate of the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism, Yarger also worked in arts management for the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and served for nine years as the Executive Director of Masterwork Productions, Inc. She lives with her husband in West Granby, CT. They have two adult children.
Copyright
All material is copyright 2008- 2024 by Lauren Yarger. Reviews and articles may not be reprinted without permission. Contact reflectionsinthelight@gmail.com
Key to Content Notes:
God's name taken in vain -- means God or Jesus is used in dialogue without speaking directly to or about them.
Language -- means some curse words are used. "Minor" usually means the words are not too strong or that it only occurs once or twice throughout the show.
Strong Language -- means some of the more heavy duty curse words are used.
Nudity -- means a man or woman's backside, a man's lower front or a woman's front are revealed.
Scantily clad -- means actors' private areas are technically covered, but I can see a lot of them.
Sexual Language -- means the dialogue contains sexually explicit language but there's no action.
Sexual Activity -- means a man and woman are performing sexual acts.
Adultery -- Means a married man or woman is involved sexually with someone besides their spouse. If this is depicted with sexual acts on stage, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.
Sex Outside of Marriage -- means a man and woman are involved sexually without being married. If this is depicted sexually on stage, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.
Homosexuality -- means this is in the show, but not physically depicted.
Homosexual activity -- means two persons of the same sex are embracing/kissing. If they do more than that, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.
Cross Dresser -- Means someone is dressing as the opposite sex. If they do more than that on stage the listing would include the corresponding "sexual activity" and/or "homosexual activity" as well.
Cross Gender -- A man is playing a female part or a woman is playing a man's part.
Suggestive Dancing -- means dancing contains sexually suggestive moves.
Derogatory (category added Fall 2012) Language or circumstances where women
or people of a certain race are referred to or treated in a negative and demeaning manner.
Other content matters such as torture, suicide, or rape will be noted, with details revealed only as necessary in the review itself.
The term "throughout" added to any of the above means it happens many times throughout the show.
Reviewing Policy
I receive free seats to Broadway and Off-Broadway shows made available to all voting members of the Outer Critics Circle. Journalistically, I provide an unbiased review and am under no obligation to make positive statements. Sometimes shows do not make tickets available to reviewers. If these are shows my readers want to know about I will purchase a ticket. If a personal friend is involved in a production, I'll let you know, but it won't influence a review. If I feel there is a conflict, I won't review their portion of the production.
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