Enjoy

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Enjoy

The Play Company at 59E59 Theaters

Reviewed by Jason Fitzgerald

April 07, 2010

Photo by Carol Rosegg

"Enjoy" is as unassuming as a diner waitress bringing you dinner, but don't let the façade fool you. The American premiere of Toshiki Okada's new play deserves the attention of a major theatrical event.

Set in an unfurnished break room in a Tokyo comic-book café, "Enjoy" delivers the latest gossip on the lives and loves of the café's employees—or rather it tries to. "I don't actually believe what I just said at all," complains one employee mid-monologue. "I have to tell the story about what happened…. I mean, it's not like I have to, but do you mind?" asks another. Okada examines the way self-awareness makes it impossible to tell stories honestly. Always speaking to two audiences—others and ourselves—we hesitate, we judge, we rewrite, we overcompensate, and so awkwardness becomes the last refuge of our authenticity. American playwrights are making similar explorations of language and the mundane (Nature Theatre of Oklahoma's "Rambo Solo," Young Jean Lee's "Lear"), but none have invested the project with such heart and humor.

Okada's style—his program bio calls it "hyper-colloquial dialogue"; my boyfriend termed it "hipster Beckett"—is to fill the stage with soliloquists who know they're on stage. Imagine Hamlet asking, "Is that really the question? What do you think?" The result is a play always aware of its process: The characters are actors, who look to us to forgive their mistakes. Dan Rothenberg's gentle staging allows the actors to connect with the audience and enjoy the present moment. Highlights among an extraordinary cast, Kris Kling and Jessica Almasy are especially adept at turning their characters' uneasiness into sources of charm.

Aya Ogawa's translation is fluid, though maintaining Japanese names despite an all-American cast is confusing, reminding us of the layers of commentary on Japanese culture that may be inaccessible to most American audiences. Still, meditations on age, failure, and finance read clearly as existentialism for the reigning recession. Like the best works of the theater of the absurd, "Enjoy" turns its humility into philosophy.

Presented by the Play Company at 59E59 Theaters, 59 E. 59th St., NYC. April 6–May 1. Tue. and Wed., 7:15 p.m.; Thu. and Fri., 8:15 p.m.; Sat., 2:15 and 8:15 p.m.; Sun., 3:15 p.m. (212) 279-4200 or www.ticketcentral.com. Casting by Judy Henderson.