In the intimate, dark box of the McCormack Family Theater, a man and woman sit awkwardly in their underwear on a worn bedspread, working themselves up to consummating their ambiguous relationship. So opens the new play "Inked Baby," by Christina Anderson GS, which premiered Feb. 6 and kicked off the New Plays Festival 26.1.
The festival showcases the work of three first-year graduate playwrights - Anderson, Meg Miroshnik GS and Dipika Guha GS - in a trio of original plays collectively titled "The Pangaea Plays," running Feb. 6 to 10.
Presented by the Literary Arts Program and Brown/Trinity Repertory Consortium, the productions represent a collaboration between the playwrights and masters of fine arts actors and directors from the consortium. In addition, undergraduates and professional actors from the local community are participating.
Guha's "Grand MotherLand" began its run last night and will have a second show Sunday. The play centers around the character "Nana" - Paola Grande GS. Nana "tries desperately to keep her grip on her home in a world that is increasingly not her own" as she is "harassed by her child-maids (and) doted on and swindled by her grandsons on their annual visit," according to production notes on play festival's Web site.
Similarly, Miroshnik's "Bad Money" also features a female character coping with the world around her. Described in production notes as "a story about an emerging market and the cost of hard currency," "Money" focuses on protagonist Agnetta, played by Sarah Malkin GS, who has "a nose for currency fluctuations." The show will premiere tonigh and run again Saturday.
"Inked," which has a second show Saturday, focuses on the couple Gloria and Greer, played by Lynnette Freeman GS and Jude Sandy '05 GS, respectively, living in a polluted urban environment and yearning for a baby.
Gloria's sister Lena, played by Angela Thomas GS, decides to help the couple out by becoming a surrogate mother, since the couple can't afford artificial insemination. This results in the sexual encounter in the first scene. Needless to say, this solution only increases tensions between high-strung Gloria and the more easy-going Greer, as Lena's pregnancy progresses.
The set - a homey bed and loveseat in front of a wooden-frame backdrop stuffed with garbage bags - provides a confined space for these tensions to play out. Anderson has an ear for contemporary language, particularly the conversational flow of dialogue between intimate friends. The actors' deliveries ring true, allowing the audience to take pleasure in the natural humor and delicious awkwardness of the characters' interactions.
While the unusual personal circumstances of the characters are the strength of the play, and likely enough to carry it, Anderson introduces a strange medical mystery subplot midway through that is rather off-putting. This plot line gradually comes to the fore, providing for an unexpected, somewhat ambiguous conclusion. As the play progresses, the stage gradually becomes strewn with garbage - dirt, slips of paper, popcorn - which ultimately plays into a central theme of contamination.
The festival, whose previous incarnations have featured the early work of such notable playwrights as Sarah Ruhl '97 MFA'01 and Nilo Cruz MFA'94, has been strongly influenced by the presence of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel, the professor of literary arts and director of the playwriting program. She recently announced that she will leave the University after this semester for an appointment at the Yale School of Drama.
The second installment of the New Plays Festival is scheduled for mid-April and will feature work by second-year graduate playwrights.
