Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – New Off-Broadway plays with distressed points of view: Joshua Owen’s HUMAN THINGS and Katie Cappiello’s THE BODY OF MARY

• By drediman
• October 6, 2026
• No Comments

Over the past week, I encountered a pair of new Off-Broadway plays with distressed points of view, together indicating the fraught state of our collective psyche during these uncertain times. As always, here are my thoughts.

HUMAN THINGS
Rowan Productions at The West End Theatre
Through October 18

First let’s discuss Human Things (RECOMMENDED), the bizarre and insidious new play by Joshua Owen currently running over at The West End Theatre. The ensemble-driven work tells the story of a scientist and her husband, who are stationed on a remote island to collect data for their environmental research. As their romantic relationship starts to fizzle — and trend towards irreconcilable differences — they are intruded upon by an older couple who have washed ashore on their damaged ship, followed by a life-threatening typhoon that changes the trajectory of all of their lives for good. With its tense marital bickering and inexplicable happenings, the piece exhibits more than a tinge of influence from the works of Edward Albee. Indeed, the play unfolds like a alternate version of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, with its older/younger couple dynamic and conflict over the possibility of new life — which occurs in a couple of instances, one being rather outlandish (no spoilers here!). The play has been directed by Rory McGregor with a keen eye for small details and deliberate pacing. Indeed, together with Owen’s capricious, on-edge dialogue, McGregor’s production casts a pungent mood, conveying dread in the face of humanity’s fast-approaching demise, whether directly by our own hands or the destruction brought upon by swiftly changing environmental circumstances. All around, the performances are top notch. As Margaret the scientist, Rebeca Robles ably exudes aggression and control, while Ben Rosenfield — who plays Margaret’s husband Greg — is a coiled ball of frustration and simmering resentment. As the older couple, the always excellent Victoria Clark (a two-time Tony-winner for Kimberly Akimbo, The Light in the Piazza) as Darce is a flurry of amusing alcoholic musings (including some valuable scraps of wisdom), while the laidback Michael Mulheren as her husband Bo is a symbiotic foil for her numbed, awkwardly resigned state of being.

THE BODY OF MARY
GoodDottirs at The Gym at Judson
Through October 8

Much more prescriptive over at The Gym at Judson downtown is Katie Cappiello’s new play The Body of Mary (RECOMMENDED). Cleverly subtitled “A Play in Three Acts (of God)”, the work is structured as three bite-sized cautionary tales performed in quick succession over just 90-minutes (sans intermission) — “The Virgin” is set between 4 to 6 B.C. in Nazareth, “The Mother” is set five years from now here in New York City, and “The Dumpster” is set in the present in Nazareth, Texas — collectively representing variations on a them. Suffice to say, taken together, these short, pointed pieces have a clear agenda. The overall work’s potency lies in its pressing relevancy, especially during a time when women’s rights are actively being rescinded, specifically here as it relates to women’s agency over their own bodies. As such, the piece is an unabashedly outspoken cry against the Church over the centuries, as well as the current backwards-stepping policy goals of the current administration. Given that Cappiello’s play is told through both parable-like storytelling and an SNL-type comedy sketch sensibility, much of the play is broadly telegraphed, lending a two dimensionality to the proceedings of each of the three segments, despite the sharp satire that courses through it all. As efficiently directed by Cappiello, the light touch of the comedy juxtaposes jarringly (at times disturbingly) with the horrors encountered by each act’s anchoring character — each a recast version of the Biblical Mary — who are invariably faced with predicaments that wouldn’t seem out of place in episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale. Throughout, the performances service each act’s straightforward messaging admirably, landing the jokes and navigating the humorous circumstances, all the while clearly conveying Cappiello’s urgent points. I just wished that the playwright had leaned somewhat less on catering to the audience’s inclinations to be entertained and challenged them with some Caryl Churchill-like theater instead.