Recently I took a tour of the history of New York City’s electrical system. Most of the infrastructure had been placed in marginalized neighborhoods. That this is not new news made it no less distressing to witness. These projects are essential for supporting modern day conveniences, but it’s always at the expense of those with less money and power to push them into someone else’s backyard.
That lack of equity is at the heart of Rishi Varma’s Sulfur Bottom. But this is not an “issues play.” Instead, by blending naturism with otherworldliness, playwright Varma has crafted a bewitching modern day folktale. It may be as ugly and bloodstained as the rug featured in the central family home, but it’s centered. Resonant themes of familial connections, hard-won second chances, and the importance of home are woven in. This distinctive approach draws in an audience that might not listen otherwise. To make an even more meaningful point, the production has partner with WE ACT for Environmental Justice (https://weact.org/) for their Off Broadway run.
Director Megumi Nakamura has done an incredible job of pile driving down to the bedrock of emotions underlying the sophisticated, fantastical plot. And we are surrounded by sound and sight cues that keep us “in it” with the characters. Each revelation comes with a musical theme (composer Jacob Brandt). The location of the house in question is on land so polluted the house literally groans in pain (sound design by Sid Diamond). Even the flowered wallpaper and aforementioned rug are slowly poisoned (set design by Daniel Prosky). The overhead lights saturate the space in appropriate jaundice-yellow tones (lighting design Sam Weiser). While there is no olfactory component, it’s easy to conjure up the corresponding odor of decay.
Of course it is the cast that lures us in. There is tension between Sir Cavin (Kevin Richard Best) and his teenage daughter Fran (Kendyl Grace Davis). She has killed [another?] deer which is now lying on a cutting block near their much-disliked rug. It’s clear their conversation about the circle of life has been playing on repeat. Sir Cavin’s belief in this interconnection has been his North Star. But Fran finds the animals that surround them both noisy and dangerous.
photo by Austin Pogrob
Also in the home is Sir Cavin sister Melissa (Joyah Dominique). Though she once hoped to move to San Francisco to be a performer, she has resigned herself to keeping a watchful eye on her niece. As the piece drifts back and forth through time over the course of 40 years— sometimes spanning two decades simultaneously — we meet Fran’s husband Winter (Eric Easter) and daughter Maeve (Feyisola Soetan) as well as Sir Cavin’s friend Copal (Aaron Dorelien) whose ambition perverts the course of their lives.
Performances of Sulfur Bottom are Wednesdays at 7:30 and Saturdays at 1:00 at The Jerry Orbach Theater, 210 West 50th Street, 3rd Floor. Tickets are available through October 11 at https://www.sulfurbottom.com/. The shallow venue is ¾ round with well loved seats and over-achieving air conditioning. A colorful beverage from the bar might add to your feeling of joining the characters in their living room.
If the ancients had spun a tradition myth about the spirits of environmental justice, it would share DNA with Sulfur Bottom. It is a cautionary tale, but told with warmth, love, and a touch of humor. We all want a better life for our children. But some have a whale of a chance of making it happen.
The Unforgettable Line 