This has been a good summer for playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, whose stunning racism-themed drama “Appropriate” won three Tony awards in a new revival production on Broadway.
“Appropriate” is about a trio of battling Southern siblings who discover, and then consider capitalizing, on their late father’s involvement in the Ku Klux KIan. A year after he wrote “Appropriate,” Jacobs-Jenkins wrote “Gloria,” a shocking play that also finds its vile characters attempting to cash in on tragedy. A finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the 90-minute “Gloria” made its San Diego premiere Friday at OnStage Playhouse in Chula Vista.
Th production at OnStage is top notch in direction, casting and design and it moves like a fast-careening roller coaster to its unpredictable end. OnStage artistic director James P. Darvas directs the production with a well-imagined multi-locale scenic design by Javier Guerrero. And the six-member cast, most of whom play multiple roles, are highly versatile and deliver strong performances.
Like “Appropriate,” “Gloria” has layers and layers of themes and ideas about toxic workplaces, capitalism, naked ambition and America’s obsession with wealth, celebrity and violence, among others. The play begins in the offices of the appropriately named American Magazine, a music and celebrity periodical, where the unsuccessful, underpaid and unhappy editorial assistants compete and constantly snap at each other like a pack of angry wolves.
There’s the shallow and over-caffeinated Kendra, played with high-wire tension and blazing-fast monologues by Katrina Heil; the aspiring novelist and hard-drinking schmoozer Dean, played with dramatic range by Geoffrey Ulysses Geissinger; and the brainy but cruel Ani, played with sharp-eyed snarkiness by Kimberly Weinberger. They’re joined by Imahni King as the bored intern Miles; Chris Tenny as the overwhelmed editor Lorin; and Holly Stephenson as the lonely copy editor Gloria.
To protect the big surprise of the play, I won’t say what happens next, but the growing tension in the office finally explodes, and the rest of the play follows several of the characters — one of them still deeply affected by the experience and the others, not so much — who decide to cash in by writing about their office debacle.
As in the TV series “The Bear,” some of the characters are deeply flawed and often horrible to one another. But they’re also funny and relatably human. It also comments cynically and humorously on the dog-eat-dog world of corporate America and the unseemly underbelly of this nation’s voyeur media.
Be warned, this is not a play for the faint-hearted, but it is engrossing to watch.
‘Gloria’
When: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 5 p.m. Sundays; plus 7:30 p.m. July 22. Through Aug. 4
Where: OnStage Playhouse, 291 Third Ave., Chula Vista
Tickets: $20-$25 (play is for mature audiences and contains a depiction of violence)
Online: onstageplayhouse.org
Originally Published:
Read More
