Sarah Cortez (Photo by Andrew Max Levy)
Reviewed by Odalys Nanin
A Guest Production at the Santa Monica Playhouse
Through March 8
The post-apocalyptic dystopia world of playwright Solange Castro has temperatures rising to 135 degrees Fahrenheit, high magnitude earthquakes, erupting fires everywhere making the air almost unbreathable — a complete collapse of the world as we know it. This play sounds very familiar to what Los Angeles has been experiencing recently. It almost could be an episode from The Twightlight Zone.
Castro’s End of Times Therapy was scheduled to open early this year. However, on January 7, hurricanes winds blew up to 100mph, igniting fires in Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Altadena, and Hollywood, enveloping LA in a huge cloud of smoke — the costliest natural disaster to date in Los Angeles. Castro wrote the play during the pandemic in 2020 because “I was angry at the leadership which just happens to be the same we are in right now.” She developed the play through zoom readings and re-writes. The entire process took her four years.
The lights come up on a functional stage with an upstage raised platform (set by Mio Okada). Tyra (Sarah Cortez) enters carrying a baby in her backpack and holding a bow and arrow. Tyra reminds us of Artemis or Diana the Goddesses of the hunt. Cortez is believable as the young, pretty wife to a domineering husband, Max (Leonard Wu), who is charismatic and exerts his power over her. Tyra must hunt for rabbits, which she kills, skins and cooks herself. She does all the work to keep her family alive in a world divided into three: the rich, represented by Dr. Jacob (Anne Gregory), who lives in a private resort; the hunters, like Tyra, who kill animals to survive; and the Raiders, a rebellious kind of gang. Gregory’s performance is a delight. Representing capitalism, she imagines she’s always right, but is she?
A core thread of the story is driven by Sage (Abigail Marlow) a therapist who consults young, pregnant women. She desires to liberate young women like Tyra from a male-dominated world that enslaves females because they’re female. Sage is confronted by Target (Anthony Riggins Jr. a strong actor with conviction), who finds Sage old but attractive; he woos her, but of course she rejects him until finally she runs after him. Ageism will not get in the way of love until her ex-husband Trip (Jeremy Guskin) appears, dressed like a guru and resembling a disciple of Jesus. He’s come back after abandoning her to go on a meditation seminar, and he has some of the play’s funnier lines. Sage is uncomfortable that she’s found her true love with Target, but all is not what seems because Target may not be as true as he seems. If this sounds a bit convoluted, it is.
There is no hope in this apocalyptic world: Only the strong and the rich will survive and, perhaps get to heaven. Robert Yasamura creative direction makes this confusing play enjoyable, enhanced by the projections and sound designed by Peter Carlstedt.
Santa Monica Playhouse, 1211 4th St., Santa Monica; Sat., 7:30 pm; Sun., 4 pm, Sun., March 8, 5:30 pm; thru March 8. https://www.showclix.com/event/end-of-times-therapy-a-world-premiere Running time: One hour without intermission.
