Paradise
Reviewed by Ezra Bitterman
JuVee Productions, American Oasis
Extended through March 31
[Note: This review is part of the Z. Clark Branson/Stage Raw Equity and Inclusion Initiative for Young Journalists. Stage Raw staff are mentoring the young authors, as they build their professional resumes as arts journalists.]
Having transferred to the Matrix Theatre from its west coast premiere at the Odyssey, Paradise opens with an enthusiastic public high school student Yasmeen (Maral Milani) asking her teacher if she can make up points on her failed biology test. The teacher, Dr. Royston (Jeff Marlow), at first refuses this credit, not buying Yasmeen’s excuse. Yasmeen is determined to maintain her 4.0 GPA, so she can apply to a program at Columbia University. Dr. Royston, however, is disgruntled, working at an underperforming school after his fall from grace at the same Columbia University that Yasmeen is trying to enter.
(The production is presented by JuVee Productions and American Oasis)
Milani is great in her role as a confused young woman locked between her religion and science. Her up-and-down personality takes the audience on a wild ride of emotion.
Even bolstered with the strong acting, it’s hard to fully understand Milani’s character with the many different turns she takes, and the speed with which she takes them.
Yasmeen is prideful, quick to take offense when her teacher doesn’t know her name, while also being incredibly humble, agreeing to an arranged marriage. Of course people have conflicting or conflicted impulses, but in playwright Laura Maria Censabella’s idea of taking Yasmeen through a complicated teenage dilemma, I never really understand where Yasmeen’s head is at. At times she will be vowing off religion dedicating herself to science, the next moment she will commit herself to satisfy her culture’s wishes and not pursue her scientific talent. Censabella has struck gold with the concept of a teenage science prodigy and Muslim, trying to strike a balance. However, the execution of that concept pulls her in so many directions, so quickly, as to be bewildering.
Meanwhile, Dr. Royston is desperate to make his way back to the top of academia. While a professor at Columbia, he fell in love with a woman who left him for a rival professor. For revenge, Royston then tampered with his rival’s experiment, leading to his banishment from the science community.
Jeff Marlow is very strong in this role; his wholesome southern accent and curmudgeon attitude are perfect for this role. Also, his well-timed enthusiasm is exciting to watch and he delivers some heartfelt monologues. Censabella throughout the play tries to get the audience to sympathize with this character, showing him as a father figure to Yasmeen, and Marlow supports that aim. However, ultimately, it’s hard to sympathize with someone who tampers with other scientists’ experiments because of lost girlfriends, regardless of how charming they may be.
I just couldn’t find the play’s larger vision.
Jeff Rowlings’ set design makes the underfunded public-school look like an expensively sheik redone classroom. New posters fill the walls and the room is clean. Hard to believe this is a setting for a school short on funds.
Matrix Theatre,7657 Melrose Ave., Fairfax; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; extended through Mar. 31. (323) 960-7724 or www.Plays411/Paradise. Running time: two hours with one intermission.
