The company of Natural Selection. (Photos by Grant Terzakis)
Reviewed by Catherine Crouch
Zephyr Theatre
Thru Feb 28
The company of Natural Selection. (Photos by Grant Terzakis)
A group of girls in matching outfits wait in an empty room, hoping their names will be called by a man’s voice through an intercom. One by one, their names are read out, and the girls are ecstatic when their moment finally arrives. Though Natural Selection never reveals what awaits the girls on the other side of the door, it is clear that it is something that, at first, is worth waiting for.
Written by Stacy Adelman, Natural Selection follows Scottie (also played by Adelman) as she waits among the other hopefuls. Yet as time goes on, she’s practically the only girl left from her cohort — girls in the same color shirt — and she begins to worry there’s something wrong with her. What if she’s the first girl whose name is never called? Her new friend Billie (Scout Gutzmerson), also a member of Cohort Black, worries the same.
The highlight of both Adelman’s script and the production is found in Scottie and Billie’s relationship. The girls joke with each other as all best friends do: most memorable is the morbid and melodramatic ways the duo acts out all the different ways they’d kill themselves out of impatient frustration. However, director Shayne Eastin’s sometimes too-stagnant staging leaves the depth of their relationship unmined. Addressing the pacing would allow the audience to more readily accept the bizarre circumstance these girls have found themselves in.
Furthermore, it is often unclear how much time has passed between each scene. At one point, Billie mentions something someone told her “a few months” after she arrived — it is the first mention that significant time has passed. This felt jarring, but I don’t know if it was meant to.
All of the actors except Adelman play multiple roles, and changing hairstyles and accessories help to differentiate between characters. However, it seemed many of the same actors played girls within and across cohorts who fell into similar archetypes — meek, frightened, eager, or overly confident — despite the new names they were assigned with each new turn on stage. When the same actor would assume the same robotic walk, closed-off body language, or power stance as five or six different girls, it became unclear if this was intentional choreography or an oversight. Natural Selection already has an impressively large cast, so perhaps more varied characterizations would allow audiences to buy in a bit more to seeing the same faces again and again.
The script and staging’s shortcomings are thankfully overshadowed by strong ensemble performances. Emma González shines as an optimistic hopeful named Audrey, but it is Gutzmerson’s performance as Billie that most grounds the production. She is both funny and sincere, and it is in her quiet moments that I most poignantly felt the weight of all this waiting. For my own sake, I wanted her name to be called so she could stay (she is that appealing) but mourned in anticipation of her leaving the stage before her exit.
Natural Selection feels half-baked but on its way to something great. It’s not that the play needs to tell us its central secret. However, the mystery at times feels more like a gimmick and less like a storytelling device. Is Natural Selection a metaphor? Presumably yes, but it’s a bit murky as to what allegory is being alluded to. Revisions to the script and staging—perhaps leaning into the humor and absurdity already rich within the strong premise—will help make Natural Selection deliver on its promise.
The Zephyr Theatre, 7456 Melrose Ave., Hollywood. Thurs.-Fri., 8pm, Sat. 7pm; Thru Feb 28. https://www.zephyrtheatre.com/nowplaying. Runtime: Approximately 70 minutes, no intermission.
