Tag Archives: Huntington Theater

The Heart Sellers – Streaming

On Demand December 26, 2023 Leave a comment

There are many recent plays and movies that investigate the immigrant experience.  Most scout the important but familiar terrain of fear and pain resulting from being in our country illegally.  The Heart Sellers takes on far less explored territory by rolling back to the early 1970s.  The two young women involved — one from the Philippines, the other from Korea — have been able to move to the United States under the provisions of the Hart-Celler Act.  This law made major changes to our immigration policy, making it easier for people from Asia and other areas previously discriminated against to come here for work.  In the case of Luna and Jane, their husbands are both in residential rotation at the local hospital.  But the wives have had to leave their dreams and most of what had given their lives meaning back in their home countries.  When fate brings them together in the supermarket on Thanksgiving, they make the most of the opportunity to find connection in what has been a very lonely world.

With an adept ear for dialogue, playwright Lloyd Suh treats us to a fabric of rich detail while keeping the conversation flowing.  His examination of the cultural norms of 1970s America is both funny and touching.  Luna and Jane’s exchange is at first realistically halting as they each employ their second language in search of common ground.  Scenic and costume designer Junghyun Georgia Lee sets the perfect tone, literally putting the two women in a tiny box that encloses the stage.  Luna’s apartment is dressed in wild and warm shades and the character herself appears in bright pink.  Matching that colorful energy, Jenna Agbayani’s Luna is buzzy and overly familiar, high on adrenaline from her daring step of inviting Jane into her home.  In contrast, Judy Song, making her North American stage debut, keeps Jane as fact-based as her earth and sky outfit would suggest.  Only when she changes into Luna’s flowered “house clothes” does her imagination soar.  

Judy Song, Jenna Agbayani; photo by T Charles Erickson

Echoing the characters’ testing of their lives’ constrictions, director May Adrales has created something of a dance for Luna and Jane within the small space.  The pacing of the piece is as zestful as the women’s search for friendship.  With its mixture of viewpoints and high level of intimacy, The Heart Sellers is a great choice for a hybrid production.  The On-Demand version was filmed at the Huntington’s Calderwood Pavilion in Boston on December 6 and is beautifully produced and edited by Kligerman Productions.

Though set during a November holiday, The Heart Sellers is a delightful treat for the end of a tough year and a hopeful start to the new one.  It is as warm and sweet as the yams the women devour with joy and gusto.  $30 digital tickets are still available at https://www.huntingtontheatre.org/whats-on/the-heart-sellers/  and can be used any time before January 6, 2024.  Playback is smooth and easy, with quality sound and image.  Runtime is 95 minutes.

Our Daughters, Like Pillars – Boston and Streaming

On Demand, Play May 2, 2022 Leave a comment

Playwright Kirsten Greenidge understands the impact of order: birth order, marriage order, and trying to keep order.  In her family drama Our Daughters, Like Pillars, she explores the significance of order in three full acts, allowing her characters to leisurely reveal their affecting histories and conflicting hopes for the future.  

This was my third viewing of a Huntington Theater play made possible by their digital insurance policy.  These offerings are not films, but rather live capture of a singular experience using 10-12 cameras.  While nothing can replicate the energy of sharing a performance with an in-person audience, The Huntington’s digital works offer quality productions to those who remain unable to sit in a venue with strangers.  All three had exceptionally clear audio. My first of these was the darkly funny Teenage Dick, energetically directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel with a first rate cast.  This stream was later shared with the Pasadena Playhouse for an extended run.  Next was Toni Morrison’s devastating The Bluest Eye gorgeously adapted by Lydia R. Diamond.  Director Awoye Timpo’s swirling camerawork allowed home audiences to better view the characters’ movements around a stage poignantly shaped like a chopped tree stump.  With Kimberly Senior’s traditional proscenium staging, Our Daughters, Like Pillars uses more expressive close-ups than shifting angles, but it never loses pacing. 

The story revolves around the three Shaw sisters who are vacationing in a house rented by oldest sister Lavinia (Seldes-Kanin fellowship winner Nikkole Salter) and her husband.  What should be a celebratory time of togetherness turns increasingly tension-filled as Vinny becomes progressively more controlling of her siblings and their mother.  Having felt isolated during the first year of COVID, Vinny’s vision is to have the entire family under one roof on a permanent basis.  But though she tries tactical cajoling, needling guilt, and outright manipulation, that goal is not shared either by people-pleasing middle sister Octavia (Arie Thompson) or youngest Zelda (Lyndsay Allyn Cox) who has only just taken her first steps towards independence.  We gain a deeper understanding of the siblings through their mother Yvonne (Lizan Mitchell) and their stepmother Missy (Cheryl D. Singleton) who are each given profound fourth-wall breaking monologues.  Race and class play important but smaller roles in the script.

Lyndsay Allyn Cox, Arie Thompson and Nikkole Salter; Photo by T Charles Erickson

While the spotlight is clearly on the women — by turns strong and brittle — it is the two men who supply the softness.  Genuine light shines from Julian Parker’s Paul King, Zelda’s casual conquest living by his wits who gets caught up in the whirl of family conflict. And Postell Pringle portrays Vinny’s husband Morris with intensity as he tries to rein in his wife’s darker, more destructive instincts.  The set by Marion Williams includes several levels which provides a feeling of movement to the dialogue-heavy drama.  The family is tightly contained, with the outside world intruding only through the ringing of a telephone.  Costumes by Sarita Fellows add essential color and flow while Jane Shaw’s sound incorporates music from Prince to Sam Cooke.

At 3 ½ hours including two 15 minute intermissions, Our Daughters, Like Pillars, indulges in the kind of rolling storytelling rarely seen since March 2020.  It is playing at the Huntington’s Wimberly Theatre in Boston through May 8 and On Demand through May 22.  Prices range from $25 – $99.  For tickets and information visit https://www.huntingtontheatre.org/plays-and-events/.