SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Jan. 16, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — Everyone knows the saying, you don’t get to choose your family, but the other thing you don’t get to select usually is the people you live next door to.
Some of us win the neighbor jackpot, and others, well, even if you’re living alongside folks that look great on paper, there can still be problems co-existing in such close proximity. And once those issues begin, they can easily spiral out of control, because there’s no way to get away. That’s the premise of Pioneer Theatre Company’s first show of the new year, the Utah premiere of “Native Gardens.” The timely satire was written by award-winning playwright Karen Zacarías, recently hailed by American Theater magazine as one of the 10 most-produced playwrights in the United States.
“Native Gardens” is described as follows: “Rising attorney Pablo and his doctoral candidate (and very pregnant) wife Tania have just purchased a D.C. home next to a well-established couple with a prize-worthy English garden. But an impending barbecue for Pablo’s colleagues and a delicate disagreement over a long-standing fence line soon spirals into an all-out border dispute, exposing both couples’ notions of race, taste, class, and privilege. Zacarías’ hilariously biting play sees well-intentioned neighbors turned into feuding enemies in a garden party culture clash for the ages.”
The play, which was commissioned by and first produced at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park in 2016, opened Friday and goes through Jan. 27. There are shows Monday through Thursday at 7 p.m., and Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., with a 2 p.m. matinee on Saturdays.
I hadn’t heard of Zacarías, or the play, before attending, but Pioneer has presented such a body of outstanding work recently that I was really excited to see it. Plus, the premise looked intriguing. And guess what? It is my favorite play so far this season, and that’s coming from someone who loved “Murder on the Orient Express,” “The Rocky Horror Show” and “Christmas in Connecticut.”
This production of “Native Gardens” is deeply satisfying. Sure, it raises some prickly political issues, but it’s also a very neat, pleasing, charming classic comedy, in the vein of Neil Simon, Tom Stoppard, or Noël Coward. If the more serious themes in the play are the cake, the icing and the decoration is the humor.
As the play begins, we meet Pablo Del Valle (Tito Livas) and his wife Tania (Katya Collazo), who are Latinx Democrats; he an ambitious attorney who grew up in a wealthy Chilean family and she a New Mexico-born Ph.D. candidate, eagerly awaiting the birth of their first child, while Frank Butley (Michael Kostroff) and his wife Virginia (Kelly Coffield Park) are well-meaning Caucasian Republicans that are close to retirement. He works for the government, mysteriously calling his employer “the agency,” while she’s an engineer at Lockheed Martin, and proud of it. Frank is quite obsessed with his fancy garden, and tends to it with fastidious care, while the Del Valle’s backyard has a lovely tree but otherwise is a bit of a mess.
Tania has strong ideas about planting only indigenous flora that is beneficial to the ecosystem, and Frank and Tania agree to disagree, but tensions rapidly escalate when Pablo, who’s anxious about making partner at his law firm, spontaneously invites all his colleagues to a party at the new house. Tania objects but then reluctantly agrees after seeing how important it is to her husband’s career. They haven’t unpacked their belongings yet, so they decide to hold the party in the backyard, and they feel an ivy-covered chain-link fence should be replaced by a wooden one to make everything look more presentable.
Their neighbors are just fine with that, until Tania and Pablo discover that the property line of their home actually extends two feet beyond the chain link fence; and that area, of course, is the home to many of Frank’s prized flowers. And that’s when all hell breaks loose. Pablo calculates how much the 80-square feet of land is worth, which is around $38,000, which he is not willing to just let go, while Frank is very upset because judges from the Potomac Horticultural Society are coming to view his handiwork the day after the barbecue. Tired of always receiving honorable mention, Frank is determined this year to nab first prize.
Zacarías uses the setup to explore issues around classism, racism and ageism, and the implications of literally building a wall between you and your neighbors (the play was written in 2015, before the Trump administration’s decision to build a U.S. Mexico border wall). But the more serious themes don’t bash you over the head; the play will keep you laughing out loud throughout and it’s really only afterward you might ponder further some of the thorny issues raised. During the 90-minute one-act play, you’re more likely to be enjoying the very charismatic cast’s impeccable comic timing and their wonderful work as an ensemble. Kostroff and Coffield Park as Frank and Virginia, both making their PTC debuts, are particularly hilarious; both have very impressive resumes including his five seasons on “The Wire” and she as an original cast member of Fox’s sketch comedy show “In Living Color,” and it’s clear they are extremely experienced actors. Both beautifully create sympathetic, intelligent characters but with a sometimes blundering undertone, so when they toss out inadvertently offensive lines, the opening night audience often responded verbally with gasps and uncomfortable laughs.
Collazo as Tania and Livas as Pablo also have a lovely chemistry; and it’s great to see a Utahn, Livas, in a lead role at Pioneer. Something Zacarías does which is extremely clever is she gives all four characters an equal arc; so each has an equally complex, realistic, balanced trajectory. There is not an overt ‘bad guy’ in the show, and because of that, I feel like you could watch the piece four times, each time focusing on a different character’s journey, and you would absolutely understand and sympathize with each. It’s likely that each audience member might sympathize with one couple, or character, a little more, but each individual is given an equal voice and seems to learn an equal amount from the others. This fairness also extends to the fact that none of the actors appears to be judging their character and their actions, which sometimes a less experienced performer is inclined to do.
It also means there is not just one message; each audience member chooses what they want to take away from the show, as each character is infused with equal humanity. There’s an outstanding scene towards the end of the play in which Frank and Virginia are having one heated conversation in their garden while Pablo and Tania have another in theirs, at the same time, so one hears parts of each conversation. It’s a perfect example of the actors’ talents across the board, and the excellent direction; it’s probably a three-minute exchange and the actors have been directed to finish at exactly the same time, which is no easy feat. It’s like a perfect four-part harmony. The cast was given a standing ovation at the end, which was absolutely well deserved.
The success of the production is also achieved due to the outstanding work of director Timothy Douglas, who previously directed “Clybourne Park” and “Fences” at Pioneer and has directing credits at some of the nation’s most esteemed theatre companies — including Signature Theatre, Roundhouse Theatre, Kennedy Center, and Mark Taper Forum. Douglas directs with a light touch, so he cultivates a clear creative vision, but his choices always seem natural, and rooted in reality.
The production values are also utterly gorgeous. The jewel in the crown is the stunning set by Jo Winiarski, depicting Frank and Virginia’s impeccable home and garden on one side and Pablo and Tania’s, which is a little more scruffy but still very nice, on the other side. Winiarski also smoothly manages to navigate some of the slightly tricky scenic demands, such as the chain link fence, which needs to be dismantled in the course of the play, a working hose, and clumps of flowers that need to be thrown. The costumes, by Lex Liang, are pleasing and just right for each character; I particularly liked Livas’ natty three-piece suits. The lighting design by Peter Maradudin is warm, subtle and natural, while the sound design by Bryce Robinette is jazzy and fun, with upbeat pop songs such as Tears for Fears’ “Shout,” Talking Heads’ “Burning Down the House,” and Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely” enhancing the action.
All in all, “Native Gardens” was a perfect night at the theater. It’s funny, satisfying, visually lovely, and thought-provoking; in fact, before my husband and I left Pioneer, we got in a rather long conversation with another couple about their neighbor woes, which involved a tree which dangled over a swimming pool, and in the course of the conversation, myself and my husband realized we actually had two neighbor/tree related stories too! What could be better than a play for the new year that gets you thinking, and not only that, talking. And, as the ending so deftly demonstrates, if you’re communicating, you’re one step closer to understanding, and one step closer to being able to co-exist with both your neighbors and within a bigger society.
For more information about “Native Gardens,” and for tickets, click here.
