{"id":735,"date":"2023-06-07T01:05:33","date_gmt":"2023-06-07T01:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stageraw.com\/remake\/?p=735"},"modified":"2023-06-12T00:41:55","modified_gmt":"2023-06-12T00:41:55","slug":"native-gardens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stageraw.com\/remake\/native-gardens\/","title":{"rendered":"Native Gardens"},"content":{"rendered":"[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overflow=”visible” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” column_element_direction_desktop=”default” column_element_spacing=”default” desktop_text_alignment=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_backdrop_filter=”none” column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” column_position=”default” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” animation_type=”default” bg_image_animation=”none” border_type=”simple” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]\n

Native Gardens<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Reviewed by Mart<\/strong>\u1f77n Hern<\/strong>\u00e1ndez<\/strong>
\nOphelia\u2019s Jump<\/em><\/strong>
\nThrough May 7<\/strong><\/p>\n

RECOMMENDED<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Written in 2016, the twilight of the Obama administration, playwright Karen Zacar\u1f77as\u2019s thought-provoking comedy portrays a \u201cborder dispute\u201d between Latino Millennials and White Boomers. Their altercation seems quaint in the wake of the Trump years, but even without the MAGA madness, Zacari\u00e1s\u2019s clever mix of jokes and sly social\/political commentary packs a zestful punch.<\/p>\n

The del Valles are new homeowners in an upscale Washington, D.C., neighborhood. Eight months pregnant and finishing her dissertation, Tania (Stella Ram\u00edrez) dreams of reviving their deteriorating yard with plants indigenous to the region, her \u201cnative garden.\u201d Pablo (Alejandro Jim\u00e9nez) dreams of becoming a partner at his new law firm \u2014 \u201cWe can do American WASP success, or at least imitate it\u201d \u2014\u00a0 and in what he feels is a career-boosting move he has agreed to host a company barbecue, heightening Tania\u2019s pre-natal and post-grad anxiety.<\/p>\n

Welcoming the newcomers with wine, chocolate, and hilariously clueless racial\u00a0faux pas<\/em>\u00a0are their next-door neighbors, the Butleys. Virginia (Jenny Buchanan) works in the defense industry and Frank (Jeff Sable) is retired and lovingly tends to his garden, where the flora is gorgeous but invasive to the area. A \u00a0friendly feud ensues, with Tania committed to organic methods and trying to convert Frank, a committed purveyor of pesticides. When a survey, however, reveals that the Butley\u2019s property, especially his beloved garden, encroaches onto the del Valle\u2019s land \u2014\u201cThey have documents. Do we?\u201d Frank ironically laments to Virginia \u2013 the couples go to the domestic equivalent of DEFCON 1.<\/p>\n

As their backyard battle escalates, the characters\u2019 innate sociability comically gives way to greed and inner contradictions. Virginia, as a woman in a male-dominated field, may sympathize with Pablo\u2019s plight at a lily white firm (\u201cAre you a token?\u201d she blithely asks). Yet her material interests and white privilege override any feminist solidarity with Tania, playing a \u201cKaren\u201d card to protect her homestead. Meanwhile, hapless Frank\u2019s obsession for tending formerly idle soil is a metaphor for the European lust for land that justified the violent colonizing of Indigenous people\u2019s \u201cunused\u201d territory.<\/p>\n

Pablo grew up in Chile with plenty of money, mansions, and maids, but was disowned when he married the \u201cpeasant\u201d Tania, a working class Mexican American from New Mexico. But his reaction to the potential of increased property values hilariously revives his bourgeois tendencies \u2014 was his family on Team Pinochet? While Tania initially tries to stifle Pablo\u2019s reasoning for his extreme methods \u2013 \u201cThey\u2019re Republicans,\u201d he declares. \u201cThey\u2019re still people\u201d she responds \u2014 homeownership could change that and turn her lefty leanings into comprador aspirations for the so-called \u201dAmerican Dream,\u201d by any means necessary.<\/p>\n

Despite some opening night jitters, the cast rose to the occasion and salvaged some awkward moments, a testament to Beatrice Casagr\u00e1n\u2019s solid direction. Ram\u00edrez\u2019s Tannia and Buchanan\u2019s Virginia \u2013 \u201cCall me Ginny\u201d \u2013 make for robust opposing foils as they try to outmaneuver each other. Meanwhile, Jim\u00e9nez\u2019s Pablo and Sable\u2019s Frank, while adversaries, still find a budding camaraderie as spouses to formidable women. And each actor credibly displays the joyful and frustrating dynamics of a strong marriage. Casagr\u00e1n\u2019s backyard set is a wonder on the small stage \u2013 it even has a working garden faucet \u2013 though Frank\u2019s flower bed could have shown more flourish.<\/p>\n

Ophelia\u2019s Jump, 2009 Porterfield Way, Suite H, Upland; Thurs.-Sat., 8 pm; Sun., 4 p.m.; dark on May 4; through May 7.\u00a0https:\/\/opheliasjump.org\/<\/a>. Running time 90 minutes, plus 15 minute intermission.<\/em><\/strong>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overflow=”visible” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” column_element_direction_desktop=”default” column_element_spacing=”default” desktop_text_alignment=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_backdrop_filter=”none” column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” column_position=”default” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” animation_type=”default” bg_image_animation=”none” border_type=”simple” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][image_with_animation image_url=”902″ image_size=”full” animation_type=”entrance” animation=”None” animation_movement_type=”transform_y” hover_animation=”none” alignment=”center” border_radius=”none” box_shadow=”none” image_loading=”default” max_width=”100%” max_width_mobile=”default”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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