Humana Festival Day 1: ‘Eat Your Heart Out’ and ‘Oh, Gastronomy’

Not even a tornado warning can stop the 36th annual Humana Festival of New American Plays at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, which runs through April 1. Violent rain storms hit the area on Friday, the first day of the industry weekend of this celebration of new works from seasoned and freshmen dramatists. Many of the most critically acclaimed plays of the past three decades have originated here. From last season, Jordan Harrison’s “Maple and Vine” was produced at Playwrights Horizons, Molly Smith Metzler’s “Elemeno Pea” was seen at South Coast Repertory, and A. Rey Pamatmat’s “Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them” has had numerous regional productions and is a finalist for the Steinberg New American Play Award from the American Theatre Critics Association. Previous Humana  pieces, which have gone on to long lives on national stages and to win top awards, include “The Gin Game,” “Agnes of God,” “Crimes of the Heart,” “Becky Shaw,” and “This Beautiful City.”

I was greeted at the Louisville airport by a cheerful marketing intern and a torrential downpour. After drying out at the hotel and going for a walk around the center of Louisville, I took in the first offering: Courtney Baron’s funny and touching “Eat Your Heart Out.” This deceptively insightful comedy starts out as a humorous look at the disappointments, frustrations, and horrors of parenting, dating, and high school, but gradually transforms into a penetrating and compassionate drama of missed connections and opportunities. We begin with three seemingly unrelated couples in Pasadena, California. Nance and Tom are desperate singles meeting for an Internet date at a museum. Overweight Evie and nerdy Colin are high school outcasts commiserating over the former being tormented by cheerleaders and the latter missing his girlfriend from his home state of New Hampshire. Alice and Gabe are a well-off childless couple, nervously bickering while they wait for a case worker to interview them for an adoption.

As we switch back and forth between these three stories, it’s revealed Nance is Evie’s mother and also the social worker for Alice and Gabe. The three arcs come together and comment on each other in unexpected and startling ways. Baron admirably shifts from biting comedy to heartbreaking drama and Kate Eastwood Norris gives a shattering performance as Nance, perfectly balancing the character’s pathos, pity, anger, and self-lacerating humor.

Every year the ATL Apprentice Company mounts a special show that consists of sketches and scenes written by various playwrights and revolving around a single theme. This year’s attraction, “Oh, Gastronomy!,” investigated attitudes toward food and eating, and it capped off the first day of my marathon with an 11 p.m. showing. Mini-plays by Michael Golamco, Carson Kretizer, Steve Moulds, Tanya Saracho, and Matt Schatz made for a sumptuous feast of words and wit.