Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Truth and deception explored in two new Off-Broadway dramas: David Zax’s AFTERMATH, Kate Vozella’s MACHINE LEARNING

• By drediman
• October 26, 2026
• No Comments

This past week, I came across a pair of Off-Broadway plays that examine the notions of truth and deception within the context of intimate relationships. Here are my thoughts on these two new traditionally-structured dramas, both of which harken back to the works of celebrated American playwrights of the past.

AFTERMATH
A.R.T./New York Theatres
Through November 8

Over at A.R.T./New York Theatres, you’ll find the New York premiere of David Zax’s new family kitchen sink drama Aftermath (RECOMMENDED). Set in Washington, DC, the play tells the story of an affluent middle-aged couple, Allan and Linda, who have taken it upon themselves to care for and psychologically rehabilitate their traumatized son Josh, a journalist who has survived a Taliban kidnapping in Afghanistan. When Josh invites his close friend Mina, a friend and fellow journalist during his time abroad, to his well-appointed DC home, skeletons locked deep in the closet gradually start creeping out, exposing layers of deception — both self- and outwardly-directed. Much of the play’s first half is dedicated to the presentation of expository pieces of information, which are revealed slowly — at times frustratingly so — eventually allowing the audience to piece together shared histories and underlying character motivations. As such, Zax’s one-act play rewards patience. Indeed, those willing to hold the course as the play seemingly treads water will be rewarded with a number of genuinely gripping scenes as the steady stream of revelations starts to gain real momentum. Thematically, the play is a meditation on privilege vis-à-vis the valuation of a human life, moral hypocrisy/idealism, and the complications of familial relationships, calling to mind plays like Donald Margulies’s Time Stands Still and Arthur Miller’s All My Sons. In terms of the latter, actor Steven Skybell is particularly affecting as Allan, a Miller-esque patriarch in panic mode. As his aggravating and aggravated son Josh, Danny Kornfeld convincingly portrays a young man who is a bundle of exposed nerves. As Linda and Mina, respectively, Jill Stern and Awesta Zarif give steady performances that nicely counterbalance the volatility of the former two. The production has been solidly directed by Colton Pometta, although sometimes her blocking is a bit awkward (e.g., characters having to fussily traverse through the two-tiered set), resulting in the occasional unnecessary lull.

MACHINE LEARNING
Little Engine Theater at the Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN)
Through October 30

Then over at the Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN) around the Hudson Yards neighborhood, there’s Little Engine Theater’s site-specific Off-Broadway production of Machine Learning by Kate Vozella (RECOMMENDED). Set at some vague point int the future, the play’s speculative premise is a fascinating one. In short, the work chronicles the escalating friction between two romantic couples, both of whom volunteer to conceal themselves from the outside world in order to provide researchers observations on human intimacy to help program humanoid companions. Suffice to say, over time in such a potboiler-inducing scenario, the said relationships inevitably evolve — at times even buckling — as allegiances shift and shamefully-hidden secrets are revealed. It’s not surprising, therefore, that Vozella’s play registers simultaneously as relationship drama and dark comedy of manners. Despite teasing to be genuinely science fiction-minded, Machine Learning intentionally delves very little into the implications of Artificial Intelligence, instead opting to focus squarely on the vulnerability of relationships and the human psyche. If at times it can all seem like an elaborate variation on reality television (e.g., MTV’s The Real World), some of the more emotionally vicious interactions also give off more than a whiff of the works of the great American playwright Edward Albee, particularly the heated exchanges of his seminal Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Thankfully, the young ensemble cast does well to lay bare, in underlined performances, the psychological make-up the play’s four characters — the coolly manipulative Georgia (Delaney Rowe) and her emotionally un-intelligent boyfriend Charlie (Douglas Smith), as well as the fragile, attention-seeking Willa (Michele Selene Ang) and her thick-skinned, closed-off girlfriend Lucia (Emma Ramos). Director Colm Summers’ production unfolds confidently in MNN’s corporate, concrete loft-like space, which has been retrofitted by scenic designer Karen Boyer into a sterile, slightly menacing living space where the walls literally listen to your every word and monitor every move you make (Boyer also designed the suite of suggestively futuristic costumes).