March/April recommendations

jungles, birds, lunch, and obscenities

🏛️ DC: THE JUNGLE by Joe Murphy & Joe Robertson, directed by Stephen Daldry & Justin Martin, presented by Woolly Mammoth & Shakespeare Theatre

Welcome to The Jungle where cultures collide and thousands dream of crossing the English Channel to the possibility of freedom. Laughter, tears, allegiances, and prayers are shared by this extraordinary community of refugees caught up in a global crisis beyond their control.

The Jungle is one of my favorite things I’ve ever seen. It’s a high-energy, beautiful, devastating portrait of refugees and volunteers at the Calais refugee and migrant camp known as The Jungle. The show is staged immersively, with the audience at tables and on the floor.

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Sometimes this kind of thing can feel gimmicky, but in The Jungle it has the effect of throwing you right into the middle of the action, and it’s thrilling. I’m not going to pretend that it’s a lighthearted piece of theatre, but it’s got humor and it feels vivid and urgent. For all of the pain and cruelty of the refugee crisis that The Jungle depicts, the method of telling is exuberant, and that’s part of what makes it possible to take in the enormity of the ongoing crisis.

The cast includes actors who have personal experience of the camp, some of whom have been telling this story for years. I’ve never seen a cast give more onstage. In addition to a call to action, their work feels like a profound act of generosity. Don’t miss it.

🚶🏽watch in person at Harman Hall: 610 F Street NW DC
💰 Tickets $49+. Discounts available for people under 35, seniors, and others. A limited number of unsold seats are available for $35 starting two hours before show time and only available in person at the box office.
❗️tickets selling fast!
📆 through April 16

🗽NYC: REGRETFULLY, SO THE BIRDS ARE by Julia Izumi, directed by Jenny Koons, presented by Playwrights Horizons and WP Theater

Arson. Affairs. Incest. Murder... are only the beginning of problems for the Whistler siblings. Mora’s gotta find her birth mother, Neel’s gotta find himself, and Illy’s gotta keep her piece of the sky... but the birds have other plans. Julia Izumi’s Regretfully, So the Birds Are is a wild, farcical tragedy that gleefully flips the human quest for self-discovery on its head.

What to expect when going to see a Julia Izumi play? Expect to be surprised. Expect also: humor, strangeness, delight, melancholy, vulnerability, talking animals. (Please note that I have not seen this play yet and talking animals are not guaranteed.)

Julia is one of those writers whose work I love to see because it’s a window into a way of seeing the world that’s different from my own. I can’t wait to see her collaboration with director Jenny Koons, another exciting theatrical mind. See you there!

🚶🏽watch in person at Playwrights Horizons: 416 W 42nd St, New York, NY
💰 tickets from $30
❗️If you are 35 or under, or a full-time student, you can become a Young Member for free to access $20 tickets. $10 tickets available with a Student Membership.
📆 through April 30
😷 face masks option but encouraged

🗽NYC: LUNCH BUNCH by Sarah Einspanier, directed by Tara Ahmadinejad, presented by Clubbed Thumb and PlayCo

“Dragon Fruit! Black Beluga Lentils! Perfectly Soft-Boiled Eggs!”

Seven public defenders seek meaning, belonging, and some semblance of order via their frenzied quest for the perfect lunch – while battling ACS, inequality, burnout, and a big ole serving of existential dread.

I saw Lunch Bunch back when it was at Clubbed Thumb’s Summerworks Festival. I laughed so hard I almost choked. The play conjures an exaggerated-but-not-really picture of the nightmare of work under late-stage capitalism and the elaborate rituals we concoct to get us through the day. The production’s breathless, frenetic pace ensures that we don’t linger too long on the Sisyphean task the public defenders have as they navigate the legal system, but it’s certainly always in the background. There’s something very cathartic in seeing the absurdity of the everyday affirmed. Lunch Bunch will do that for you.

🚶🏽watch in person at 122CC, 2nd Floor Theatre: 150 1st Avenue, NY NY
💰 tickets from $28
📆 March 28 - April 15
😷 must wear a mask for the whole show. Thursday March 30 show designated as Vaccination & Booster Only.

🗽NYC: PUBLIC OBSCENITIES, written and directed by Shayok Misha Chowdhury, presented by Soho Rep and NAATCO

Choton relishes being the translator, toggling nimbly between Bangla and English, Grindr and academese. But when he returns to his grandfather’s house in Kolkata with his boyfriend Raheem, an unexpected discovery leaves Choton at the limits of language. Public Obscenities is a bilingual play from writer-director Shayok Misha Chowdhury about the things we see, the things we miss, and the things that turn us on.

I’ve never seen anything quite like Public Obscenities. It is a testament to the work of the artists that created it that the production feels less like a traditional play than an almost-three-hour experience of peering through a window into the lives of a family in Kolkata, India. The central plot thread concerns Bengali-American PhD student Choton and his American cinematographer boyfriend Raheem, who have traveled to Kolkata to interview queer locals for an as-yet-defined project. But each character gets their own story, creating an intimate picture of each person onstage.

The level of precision and detail in the production is remarkable. I’ve never been to India or anywhere else in South Asia, so part of my experience of the play felt akin to doing a homestay—being let into the private life of a family and getting to see the details and rhythms of life in a place that’s new to me (mosquito nets, Bangla, the specific heat of this city, unfamiliar brands). I imagine the experience is different for people with more personal experiences of life in Kolkata. (One such account, by Bedatri D. Choudhury, here.)

It’s a truly singular piece of theatre, and I struggle to describe it. Best to experience it for yourself.

🚶🏽watch in person at Soho Rep, 46 Walker St., NY NY
💰 tickets from $35
📆 through April 16
❗️many dates already sold out - get your tix quick!

1. Accessible seating offered!