Renaissance’s ‘Native Gardens’ makes border war a fair fight
Imagine a sitcom where all of the squabbling neighbors were intelligent and verbally adroit, and the deck isn’t stacked for either side.
That might be hard to find on cable. But you can see it at the Broadway Theatre Center, where Renaissance Theaterworks opened “Native Gardens” Saturday evening.
In Karen Zacarías’ comedy, directed by Marti Gobel, an ambitious young Latinx couple, Tania (Kelsey Elyse Rodriguez) and Pablo Del Valle (Andrew Joseph Perez) move into a tony Washington suburb, next door to aged WASPs Virginia (Linda Stephens) and Frank Butley (Norman Moses). Pablo hopes to make partner at a whiteshoes law firm; Tania is both eight months pregnant and finishing up her Ph.D.
It’s friendly at first, despite some thoughtless patronizing from the bluebloods: Frank tells Pablo, who’s actually Chilean, that he reminds him of Freddie Prinze’s character in “Chico and the Man.”
But when the Del Valles move to replace a ratty fence before an important party, they discover their property legally extends two feet into the Butleys’ yard, right through Frank’s prized English garden, which he’s prepping for an annual competition he’s obsessed with winning. Those disputed feet amount to big money in real estate, so cue the arguments, the insults and the petty vandalism.
In true sitcom fashion, the husbands here are goofballs when at ease, but also no dummies; Moses and Perez, both skilled comic actors, are good fits. Both wives are steelier. Stephens brings her acting chops to the play’s most complex character. Yes, she’s a privileged old white woman, but she’s also fought her way through decades of sexism in the defense industry. She knows how to deliver a kill shot.
Rodriguez’s Tania is the comedy’s ideologue. But her dogma is natural landscaping, not electoral politics. In 2018, a fiery argument over gardening is an upgrade over much public discourse.
Zacarías’ play is often about how we argue, as neighbors and as spouses. A common trick here is for one side to flip the language back at the other, like when the rich Virginia calls Tania “entitled,” or rouses Frank with this rallying cry: “Let’s show these unscrupulous brats what power to the people really means.”
I also appreciated how “Native Gardens” critiques the notion that a kind face and gentle words make a power play go down easier. Nope, not when it comes to giving up our azaleas.
After some slapstick mayhem, “Native Gardens” wraps up far more neatly than Jerry Seinfeld would like. But I’ll take Zacarías’ perky conclusion in the spirit of Robert Frost: “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,/That wants it down.”