Theater Review / Another play in the win column for the Red Barn, with comedy Native Gardens

By Joanna Brady

Native Gardens, a very funny, entertaining play, has all the ingredients for success. The script is witty and snappy; the cast is terrific, and Murphy Davis’s casting and direction is spot on. It’s a new play, brilliantly written by Karen Zacarias, and it raises so many of the political issues we question today that we’re easily fooled by the comedic dialogue. The amusing exchanges overlay a darker racist and political division that we continue to wrestle with.

A Latino couple in their early 30s moves into a well-to-do, mostly white neighborhood in Washington D.C. Tania, born and raised in New Mexico, is eight months pregnant and finishing a Ph.D., while Pablo, from a wealthy Chilean family, is a senior associate in a big-name DC law firm. The house they buy is a handyman’s special, a project that will take a lot of time and effort to put right.

Their next door neighbors, both in their 50s or 60s, are a mainstream white couple. Virginia—played with humor, sympathy, and toughness by Rebecca Gleason—is an engineer for a defense contractor. Frank (is played with appropriate righteousness by Bob Bowersox who displays a rich range of emotion) He’s a consultant for “the agency.” But mostly, he is an obsessive gardener, fanatically pursuing the Gardener of the Year award from the local horticultural society.

At first the two couples are neighborly and matey; little gifts of wine and dark chocolate, offers to baby-sit when the baby comes. The younger couple admires Frank’s garden, but sees the possibilities of how their house and garden will look on their own terms, completely at odds with the botanical philosophy of the oldsters. While Frank plants only exotics and uses commercial pesticides and fertilizers, Tania envisions an organic garden dominated by a majestic old oak and native plants, and this creates a bone of contention. It’s not enough for Tania to dislike it. She lectures Frank on environmental responsibility and his stewardship of the earth’s ecology.

The one thing they all agree on is that the sagging chain link fence between their properties is an eyesore that needs to be replaced. Surveyors are called in to validate the property line, but then, it all turns to manure. The surveyors find that the Butleys have been inadvertently gardening a two feet wide strip of the del Valle’s property for years. It doesn’t sound like much, but at present land values, it works out to $38,500 worth of land.

In his poem “Mending Wall”, Robert Frost says ‘good fences make good neighbors’. As in Frost’s poem, the fence between the Butleys and the del Valles has a metaphorical connotation. The play is really about racial, ethnic and social conflict. It’s about ageism and new money versus old establishment. Did I mention the Butleys are Republicans and the del Valles are Democrats?

Discussions quickly turn to arguments—downright nasty arguments. There are threats of lawsuits and police actions, court orders, and fines. Even “adverse possession” is invoked. That’s squatters’ rights in legalese.

The younger team turn in excellent performances. Morgan Fraga (Tania) takes on Virginia, while Luis Febo (Pablo) saves his menacing venom for Frank Butley. Young, educated, and ambitious, they’ve had a snootful of racism and condescension from the likes of Mayflower Brahmins along the way to their present success.

When it comes down to it, they’re all good Americans, but like many of us, both sides nurture long-ingrained stereotypes. There’s nothing outright cruel about Native Gardens. Frank may be a stereotype, but the writer and Bowersox never let him descend to the Archie Bunker level of meanness and insensitivity.

I’m a sucker for a great ending, and Native Gardens doesn’t disappoint. Let’s just say that the resolution of the play will bring on still more laughs. Don’t miss this one! It’s a winner.

Kudos to Annie Miners’ stage management, the McDonald father and son team Gary and Jack for the set design. The play runs Tuesdays to Saturdays through April 7. All curtains are at 8:00 p.m. Red Barn is located at 319 Duval (Rear) in Key West. Tickets available online or call (305) 296-9911

(Joanna Brady is a local writer, author of the historical Key West novel, The Woman at the Light, published by St. Martin’s Press)

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