Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – INDIA PALE ALE & THE NICETIES: MTC unveils a pair of timely and polished, if labored, new plays

• By drediman
• October 28, 2018
• No Comments

Over the last week, Manhattan Theatre Club unveiled a pair of polished, if labored, new Off-Broadway plays at New York City Center. On paper, both promised to be timely stories from the perspectives of two women playwrights. However, neither play – one more so than the other – fulfilled on their enticing premise.

Shazi Raja in MTC’s production of Jaclyn Backhaus’s “India Pale Ale” at New York City Center / Stage I.

First up was India Pale Ale (SOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED) by Jaclyn Backhaus. The play tells the story of a Punjabi family in the American Midwest as they try to navigate the tricky proposition of assimilating while maintaining a sense of history and heritage. As a Filipino-American, I can most certainly identify with the play’s premise. Unfortunately, I found Ms. Backhaus’s writing to be either excruciatingly strained or obviously telegraphed. The play is populated with exaggerated cartoon characters that fail to register even on the level of TV sitcom. The text isn’t helped by Will Davis’s awkward staging, and the cast of mostly Indian-American actors, as a result, seem lost at sea, very much like the pirates (the less said, the better!) they excruciatingly imitate throughout.

Jordan Boatman and Lisa Banes in MTC’s production of Eleanor Burgess’s’ “The Niceties” at New York City Center / Stage II.

MTC’s other current Off-Broadway offering fairs much better, but I still consider it problematic. The play in question is Eleanor Burgess’ The Niceties (RECOMMENDED). The two-hander depicts the political and cultural power struggle between two women – one an ambitious black college student and the other her white middle-aged history professor. If this sounds an awful l0t like David Mamet’s Oleanna, it’s because they are, in fact, very similar. However, unlike the latter, which allows the incendiary pyrotechnics to arise organically, The Niceties seems to have a pretty comprehensive checklist of topical issues to cover on its agenda. Director Kimberly Senior is no stranger to working with such combustible works, having directed the sensational Pulitzer Prize-winning Disgraced. However, not even she nor her two fine actors – Lisa Banes and Jordan Boatman – can camouflage the cogs that run Ms. Burgess’s manipulative new play.