Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Leah Nanako Winkler’s sit-comy GOD SAID THIS sadly misses the mark

• By drediman
• January 30, 2019
• No Comments

Satomi Blair, Emma Kikue, Ako, and Jay Patterson in Leah Nanako Winkler’s “God Said This”, courtesy of Primary Stages at the Cherry Lane Theatre. Photo by James Leynse.

Last night, Primary Stages’ production of God Said This by Leah Nanako Winkler opened Off-Broadway at the Cherry Lane Theatre. The premise – a feisty, estranged daughter, Hiro, returns to the Kentucky town she grew up in to help look after her terminally ill mother, who is suffering from an aggressive form of cancer. Her return triggers personal insecurities, as well as an unresolved anger towards her ex-alcoholic father.

Despite a few scattered moments that were genuinely insightful and moving, I largely found Ms. Winkler’s play to be a disappointment, which is a shame given its focus on the far under-represented Asian American experience (Hiro’s mother is Japanese and her father is caucasian). Indeed, many of the play’s sit-comy scenes – there’s nothing wrong with that, in principle – came across as trite and telegraphed. Not surprisingly, the characters also lacked subtlety, coming across as strained and painfully clichéd caricatures.

Primary Stages has given the play a well-mounted production, which has been sturdily directed by Morgan Gould. As for the acting, it was all over the place. There was a general tendency towards overly broad portrayals, which alas emphasized and exacerbated the flaws in the text. If one of Ms. Winkler’s main aims was to write a tough but warm-hearted play about the process of letting a loved one go, then I’d unfortunately say that the mark was missed. For that, I would suggest you go see Calvin Trillin’s slight but really lovely stage adaptation of About Alice at TFANA, instead.

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GOD SAID THIS
Off-Broadway, Play
Primary Stages at the Cherry Lane Theatre
1 hour, 45 minutes (without an intermission)
Through February 15