‘Native Gardens’ - Theater Mirror

(Leigh Strimbeck, Alaina Fragoso, Eduardo Ruiz, Patrick Shea in ‘Native Gardens’ at Gloucester Stage. Photos by Jason Grow)

Review by James Wilkinson

Native Gardens – Written by Karen Zacarias. Directed by Kelly Galvin. Scenic Design: Lindsay Genevieve Fuori. Lighting Design: Marcella Barbeau. Costume Design: Chelsea Kerl. Sound Design: Alexis Rappaport. Props Design: Emme Shaw. Produced by Gloucester Stage Company, 267 E. Main St., Gloucester through October 20.

It was idle curiosity, more than any other factor, that brought me to Gloucester Stage Company’s production of Native Gardens. The play by Karen Zacarias made Theatre Communication Group’s list of the most produced plays for the 2018/2019 season (tying for placement with Paula Vogel’s Indecent), and I think that the achievement means something about where we (and that’s the collective “we”) are right now. In an age where more plays than ever are being written and with the canon of producible plays being so vast, something about this play managed to capture the attention of audiences across the country (or maybe it’s more appropriate to say that it managed to captured the attention of the regional theater Artistic Directors). All art is reflective of the artist, but popular art is reflective of the culture. I missed the Merrimack Repertory Theatre production last year, but now the play has come to Gloucester Stage and I wasn’t going to miss the chance to partake and see just who it is we all are.

by Mike Hoban

‘Native Gardens’ – Written by Karen Zacarías; Directed by Giovanna Sardelli; Scenic Design by Alexis Distler; Costume Design by Miranda Kau Giurleo; Lighting Design by Karen Perlow; Original Music & Sound Design by Ursula Kwong-Brown and Daniel Erdberg. Produced by the Merrimack Repertory Theater, 50 East Merrimack Street, Lowell, MA, through October 7.

Political comedy may be the most difficult of all of the genres to get right, even more so in these deeply divided times. Since many of us have lost the ability to even entertain the possibility that other points of view might have some validity, when politically charged issues are presented on stage, all too often good comic writing takes a back seat to caricature or cheap preaching-to-the-choir grandstanding.

Tag: ‘Native Gardens’

Exploring Native Gardens at Gloucester Stage

Political Comedy No Longer an Oxymoron with MRT’s ‘Native Gardens’