A flowering feud in PTC’s ‘Native Gardens’
The lighthearted, illuminating play reaps laughs from a thorny spat that quickly sprouts into a territorial rivalry.
BY BLAIR HOWELL
“People can get very weird about their plants.” Then two neighboring couples get weird — and wildly contentious. A regional premiere at our esteemed Pioneer Theatre Company, Native Gardens targets a slew of -isms: racism, sexism, culturalism, ageism, colonialism, materialism, nationalism, elitism and narcissism, each individually and smoothly named in the engaging play. Along with, as the title explains, native-vegetation horticulture vs. the colorful blooms of ornamental gardening.
Native Gardens is an enjoyable comedy with a spirited cast that skewers prejudices to prompt audiences in a playful way to inventory their own biases. The Neil Simon-esque dialogues are witty, insightful, and lecture-free.
Frank Butley (Michael Kostroff) and Virginia Butley (Kelly Coffield Park) are white-establishment Republicans, kindly but entitled, and Pablo Del Valle (Tito Livas) and Tania Del Valle (Katya Collazo) are their friendly Democratic newcomer neighbors, planning a barbecue gathering under their backyard oak tree.
Tania is intent on indigenous flora beneficial to the ecosystem, and Frank is the fastidious obsessive European parterre garden enthusiast. The Del Valles’ unkempt oak tree is despised by the Butleys for spewing acorns and leaves across their manicured, crabgrass-free lawn, but the oak is prized for its commanding stature by Pablo and Tania. Most vexing is the surprising discovery of the Del Valle property line that engulfs two feet of the Butley yard.
Interesting to learn that “Valle” translates to valley, and Butley is a possible citation to a Simon Gray play, famously starring Alan Bates as a curmudgeon who bullies all within his sphere.
“Are you the token?” Virginia asks Pablo about his office staff. “Don’t let anyone call you that,” while subtly suggesting that he is the sole nonwhite law-firm employee. Tania asks if Frank listens to NPR, then demeaningly clarifies that she’s speaking of National Public Radio.
The undermining appearing-to-be-congenial lines set the play apart for its breezy humor and revealing observations of human behavior.
Playwright Karen Zacarías giddily lampooned telenovelas in her previous Destiny of Desire. Now Native Gardens is an expertly written stage sitcom, with no negative connotation to “sitcom.” Good new comedies like Native Gardens are rare and deserve to be cherished, and praises to PTC for bringing us a work that is both new and wholly recommendable.
Timothy Douglas is the director who craftly unites the skilled actors in their bouncingly heightened character portrayals and append precise, unique mannerisms.
As Pablo, Livas is a local actor, notably performing on many professional stages — and seen beaming on at least one freeway billboard. I’ve enjoyed his endlessly expressive performances, and here displays comedic physicality that is in my eye the most winning characterization.
Not to say the three other actors aren’t keenly comedian performers. Park’s Virginia has an intensity and a shrewdness that suits her character’s background as a Lockheed Martin engineer. Collazo’s unbridled enthusiasms and quicksilver temper in the Tania role are nevertheless appealing. Kostroff is on target as the fussbudget Frank with an exact mix of superiority and absurdity.
The chemistry between the four main actors is enhanced by the recorded musical transitions between the brief scenes, beginning with a song about neighborly neighbors that’s not Mr. Rogers’.
Amid the subconscious and overt discriminations is the congenial acceptance of the Butleys’ gay son, about to be wed in their garden oasis. There is one justified bigotry: A four-foot cement garden gnome statuary meets his demise.
Through Jan. 27, tickets.pioneertheatre.org
I was stunned by how much I enjoyed Native Gardens. Midway through PTC’s season, I eagerly anticipate the shows closing the season:
► Bonnie & Clyde, the sympathetic retelling of the notorious bank robbers who became folk heroes composed by Frank Wildhorn (a musical that’s not the disastrous The Count of Monte Cristo, endured in a previous PTC season), Feb. 23-March 9;
► Inaugurating the university’s intimate Meldrum Theatre, The Lehman Trilogy is an epic tale of the Lehman brothers’ pursuit of the American Dream and the effects of greed and unbridled power, March 29-April 3;
► Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, a celebrated musical adaption of a 70-page chunk of War and Peace, which I didn’t believe I’d ever see in Utah, May 10-25.
The Tony tally of the three shows: 22 nominations and seven awards.
And PTC, please share when we can anticipate the release of the shows to be produced in the company’s 24/25 season.
