All Over the Map

“I think a panacea to the crazy way of the world is to really laugh your ass off in the theater,” says Tracy Brigden, who is directing Keith Reddin’s new political comedy The Missionary Position at Merrimack Repertory Theatre in Lowell, Massachusetts.

The work centers around a representative of a Christian organization who is on the campaign trail with a Presidential candidate. While this set-up may seem poised to make fun of Republicans more than Democrats, Brigden assures that the humor is bi-partisan, and what’s really ridiculed are “people who are extreme in their viewpoints, and not open to discussion or a conversation with others about compromise. The title obviously has a sexual connotation, but it’s also about preaching to convert people to your side.”

The play was commissioned by Pittsburgh’s City Theatre, where Brigden is artistic director, and where the production was initially mounted last spring. “The reason I think American writers don’t do a lot of plays about contemporary politics is that by the time they go through the journey to get the play on stage in America, the subject matter is passé and dead,” states Brigden. “We put it on the City Theatre schedule before we had even seen the script, because we wanted to get it on prior to the election.”

The director and playwright have made a few changes for the Merrimack staging, with the most significant one being to condense the action so that the entire play takes place during primary season. “It felt too elongated before,” she says. “The play has this natural engine where the steam builds as it gets closer and closer to the conventions — and then spins out of control and gets really funny.”

— D.B.

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American book clubs officially date back as far as 1726 when Benjamin Franklin formed a literary society, but Karen Zacarias has chosen to focus on their recent revival in The Book Club Play, which is making its world premiere at The Round House Theatre in Bethesda, Maryland (and which will be seen later this year at the Berkshire Theatre Festival).

As a member of a book club that she started with friends 10 years ago, Zacarias knows firsthand that the groups are often about non-literary matters, such as “dinners, wine, and making sure that you get together with friends. It’s always so rewarding, and yet at the same time there can be a lot of conflict involved.” The dramatic tension of the piece centers on a new group member who was not approved under the usual vetting process, and the arc of the play follows the club from February to December and their discussions about books ranging from Moby Dick to Tuesdays with Morrie.

“The show will appeal to those who haven’t read a single book that is discussed in the show,” says Zacarias. The Book Club Play is about, “text and community, and we have all experienced those things,” she says. “It’s also about power, and how every marriage and friendship is still a power relationship.” Moreover, because the play is written like a documentary, the characters are aware that they are being watched and that self-awareness causes changes in the group that Zacarias says are both “very funny and very devastating.”

— T.F.

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A 10-year-old boy brings a gun to class in Richard Martin Hirsch’s world premiere drama The Monkey Jar, currently at Theatre 40 in Los Angeles. However, the playwright insists that the work is “less about a shooting and more about the public education system and charter schools. I wanted to create some discussion about not just the incident, but the way in which we teach, and the whole emphasis on test scores, prestige, and standards.”

The gun in question is an antique, and the Asian American child — the adopted son of Jewish parents — may simply have brought it to try to impress his Japanese-American teacher. “Right and wrong is intentionally clouded,” says Hirsch. “All of the characters have good aspects and bad aspects.” Further complicating matters are issues of race and sexuality, with a first-year African-American principal who must decide upon the truth of the matter, and a privately gay teacher whose sexuality also comes into play during the course of the discussion.

Hirsch takes his title from a method of trapping monkeys in the jungle. A piece of fruit is placed in a jar, and “when the monkey sticks his hand in to get the food, it makes a fist and then can’t get it out. The monkey gets caught before it will actually let go. The nature of the trap is a great metaphor for the educational system, and the play is about advancing one’s self by letting go rather than holding on.”

— D.B.