THE HANGOVER REPORT – Mara Nelson-Greenberg’s DO YOU FEEL ANGER? examines the gulf between the sexes, and whatnot

Ugo Chukwu and Justin Long in Mara Nelson-Greenberg's "Do You Feel Anger?" at the Vineyard Theatre. Photo by Carol Rosegg.

Ugo Chukwu and Justin Long in Mara Nelson-Greenberg’s “Do You Feel Anger?” at the Vineyard Theatre. Photo by Carol Rosegg.

This past weekend, I caught Mara Nelson-Greenberg’s new play Do You Feel Anger? Off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre. The semi-surrealist play tells the story of an empathy coach who has been hired by a debt collection agency to train its employees – most notably the men in the office – to diffuse the threatening culture that’s been set in place in their workplace.

Stylistically, Ms. Nelson Greenberg’s play calls to mind the absurdist, almost nonsensical word puzzles made mainstream by playwrights like Will Eno. However, in the case of Do You Feel Anger?, the loopy wordplay serves a clear purpose – to portray the wide communication gap between the sexes. Although the play (somewhat tiresomely) takes an incessantly unforgiving stance against straight men and their stubborn, nearly bewildering lack compassion and emotional intelligence, the play also points its damning finger at an unsuspecting and unexpected culprit.

Ultimately, the play is at its most effective – and most uncomfortably hilarious and chilling – when its committed cast viscerally engages in Ms. Nelson’s menacing, deceptively playful dialogue, ultimately climaxing in a stunning Octoroon-like visual and dramatic coup (kudos to set designer Laura Jellinek) that I won’t spoil for you. They’re less successful during the play’s more conventional bits (e.g., the occasional voicemails left by the empathy coach’s mother), despite director Margot Bordelon’s attempts to inject life into these less inspired sequences.

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DO YOU FEEL ANGER?
Off-Broadway, Play
Vineyard Theatre
1 hour, 30 minutes (with no intermission)
Through April 20

Categories: Off-Broadway, Theater

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