Photos by Shawn G. Henry
‘The Garbologists’ — Written by Lindsay Joelle. Directed by Rebecca Bradshaw. Presented by Gloucester Stage Company at 267 East Main St., Gloucester, through July 26.
By Shelley A. Sackett
Rebecca Bradshaw, Producing Artistic Director of Gloucester Stage Company and director of its first-rate The Garbologists, couldn’t have timed it better. With Republic Services sanitation workers in the second week of their strike, garbage is on everyone’s mind as bags pile up on the North Shore and throughout Greater Boston.
Playwright Lindsay Joelle’s tight, bright comedy brings its audience behind the windshield of a New York City Sanitation Department truck and into the lives of two people thrown together by circumstance: Danny (an exceptionally talented and engaging Paul Melendy) and Marlowe (Thomika Marie Bridwell). The two-hander (80 minutes with no intermission) is one of the most endearing odd couple buddy comedies since, well, Jack Klugman and Jack Lemmon in the 1970s television series, “The Odd Couple.”
Danny, a 41-year-old white blue-collar regular guy, is bigger than life. A seasoned worker with nine years’ experience, he is a nonstop talker, full of advice and corny jokes. He also has a wealth of institutional knowledge and an intuitive sixth sense about the street as a source of understanding the meaning of life. “There’s a lot you can tell about someone by what they throw away,” he counsels his rookie partner. “Read the bags.”
Marlowe, a mid-30s Black Ivy League-educated (two degrees, no less) woman, is as buttoned up as Danny is unzipped. For the first many minutes, she watches and listens in disinterested silence as Danny continues his comedic monologue. In her pressed and pristine uniform, she looks more ready to walk across a graduation podium than toss overstuffed black bags into the bowels of their truck.
Like an awkward blind date, they eye each other suspiciously, each seeming to wonder what they did to deserve such a match.
But these two have more in common than it first appears, and thanks to a combination of a mostly sharply honed script and spot-on, crisp direction, the layers of what separates them melt away. By the play’s life-affirming end, the two have found more than just friendship; they have found a piece of themselves through each other.
Set in the streets of New York (effective lighting by Anshuman Bhatia, sound by Julian Crocamo and a terrific set by Kristin Loeffler that includes traffic lights, road signs and a functioning trash truck that swivels and rotates), the show slowly builds hope, trust and friendship between these two seemingly mismatched characters as they go about the business of their day. Danny pours on the charm, trying to get Marlowe to loosen up and laugh. Melendy’s performance is worth the price of admission. He is a one-man showstopper, and he is on stage the entire time. As he swerves from serious mentorship to revealing details of his personal life (he is divorced, has a seven-year-old son and is currently under a temporary restraining order), he is a whirling dervish of physicality and nuanced delivery. He is also caring, philosophical and self-aware. “I’m an acquired taste,” he admits. “Like blue cheese.”
For her part, Marlowe at first is having none of it. Bridwell alternates between high-decibel anger and sullen silence, limiting the audience’s ability to get to know and relate to her character. Although by the end we understand the trauma that led her to take this job, it is an uphill climb.
Joelle gives these two plenty of meaty dialogue, full of astute observations about the meaning behind what people throw away. The street is a resource as well as a wastebasket; one person’s waste is another’s life source.
There are some belly laugh lines and hysterical scenes, especially one with a box full of dildos that Danny uses for an improvisational monologue that finally gets Marlowe to laugh. Triumphant, Danny basks in his accomplishment. “You look radiant,” he practically gushes.
With the exception of a distractingly contrived and awkward twist at the play’s end, Joelle keeps both storyline and character development moving in dynamic and engaging ways.
When Danny gets a call to pick up his sick son at school, Marlowe helps him navigate the awkwardness of figuring out how to contact his ex-wife without violating the terms of his TRO. When Marlowe rescues a teddy bear and places it reverently on a pole, Danny observes but gives her space and time to disclose her reasons. And when Marlowe endangers herself by cavalierly tossing potentially hazardous substances into the compactor, Danny reacts both as boss and concerned friend.
By the play’s end, we really feel for these two and the cycles of grief, joy, insecurity, loss and random bad luck each has experienced. We also think about garbage (and garbage collectors) in new and shaded ways. Is there a moral obligation, for example, to return something of value that its owner ignorantly tossed, or does the “Finders Keepers” rule apply? When we discard something, do we also discard the right to privacy and anonymity about having owned it?
Most of all, Joelle shines a timely light on our detached perception of those who haul away our debris as faceless and anonymous. These two are full-throated, wonderfully fleshed out, complex and likeable characters, loyal to their families and supportive in their friendships. “Just because we pick up trash doesn’t make us garbage,” Danny says. Amen to that.
Recommended.
For more information, visit: https://gloucesterstage.com/garbologists/
