Margin Notes: Powerhouse

Powerhouse

Seen on: Friday, 10/07/22.

Dominick LaRuffa Jr. and Laura Shoop
as Guy Stone and Regan Van Riper.
Photo by Cameryn Kaman.

My grade: C. Ambitious but confused.

Plot and Background

Manhattan Repertory Theater presents a new play by David Harms, directed by MRT's co-founder and artistic director, Ken Wolf. The play flips the all-too-familiar narrative of a high-powered partner in a law firm having an affair with an associate by having that partner be a woman in her 40s in a relationship with a thirty-five year old man. When HR catches wind, Regan Van Riper must fight not only for her relationship but for her partnership in the firm as well.

What I Knew Beforehand

I knew the blurbed premise, that it was about power dynamics among genders, with the twist being that the higher ranking character is female.

Thoughts:

Play: It's a bit of awkward timing to see this only a week after the Wife Guy scandal broke, the moral of which was: "Don't have sex with your employees. It's an abuse of power no matter which way you slice it." It's especially awkward because as far as I can tell, this play thinks it's okay actually, at least when Regan does it. Because female empowerment maybe? I just. I hate to invoke a meme in a review, but what I kept asking over the course of this play was "What man wrote this?" Unfortunately the play is rife with problematic or tired tropes, including Meena the HR lady who seems to irrationally hate Regan (women disliking other women without actual reasons), to the degree of breaking ethical codes to try to trap her, and refusing to believe Regan's story of an earlier assault inflicted on her by a partner. Yes, I know there are women who don't believe women, but there's just no grounding or textual justification for this. It's just there. Because women are irrational hahaha? I don't know. Couple that with the fact that the Chairman, Norris Peebles, is a Black man and would know as well as Regan the challenges faced when climbing the corporate ladder while being anything other than a white hetero cis man. And yet there's no textual acknowledgement of that either, beyond one throwaway line about expecting him "of all people" to be an advocate. So I have to emend my question now to "What white man wrote this?" Unfortunately, it's the wrong one. I don't think Harms is equipped to tell this story--which, to be clear, has an interesting premise, and I would have loved to have seen a complicated examination of what happens when someone has achieved great things but still does something bad enough that it has to end this part of their career. I wanted that story, and I expected that story, but that's not the story that's being told, and I think it's a little too proud of itself for an allyship it's not coming by honestly. 

Cast: Fighting the hardest for Powerhouse's questionable thesis is lead actress Laura Shoop as Regan, and she is terrific. She's the queen on the chessboard and she knows it. While she brings a sweet vulnerability to her more tender moments with her lover Guy, it's her moments of strength, her whip-sharp mind crafting a new strategy, that make her truly striking to watch. Jeorge Bennett Watson as Chairman Peebles is an able scene partner for her, with presence and a familiar chemistry conveying a long friendship and professional respect. He has a natural gravitas that speaks volumes for his leadership of the firm. Less successful is Dominick LaRuffa Jr. as Regan's paramour Guy, who while charming and dopily affable, is not on her level and never attains a romantic chemistry that earns the characters' declarations of love. At our performance, standby Kate Levy was on for Head of HR Shaney, and she acquits herself well as a person who should have high status and somehow can't seem to hold onto it long enough to assert it to anyone else. Jennifer Pierro, as mustache-twirling antagonist Meena, seems uncomfortable onstage and is perhaps miscast in the role (though described in the script as a "flirty little thing" about the same age as Guy, her performance comes across as a stoic older woman--another mentor figure for a befuddled younger man unable to articulate what he actually wants). 

Design: Jack C. Golden's set design presents all aspects of Regan's world in one space: a raised platform for her high-rise apartment, another for the HR office, and the Chairman's office down center, all backed by a wall-to-wall picture window of midtown Manhattan (and I appreciate the LED lighting for the office spaces, courtesy of lighting designer Yang Yu). While Golden's design utilizes some satisfying color palate and materials, I have to wonder about the status statements connoted by the different levels provided. The bigger offense, though, is that while Golden has given director Ken Wolf clearly defined spaces, they are not treated as such by the performers, and the spillover--which seems chiefly a result of insufficient playing space for the number of performers onstage--speaks to an equally insufficient level of communication between director and designer. This is further injured by the overlong transition moments between scenes, consisting of a dark stage and an underscore of frankly questionable music provided by sound designer Lexi Spera (when the drum roll hit, I thought perhaps the tone was shifting to comedy). Faring better is Sabrinna Fabi's costume design, with everyone's suits beautifully tailored and Regan's power suits in particular striking and adding a depth of understanding to how Regan arms herself for the world. (those shades of grey in the partner confrontation? I see what she did there) From moment one we are clued in that this is a woman with her shit together. I think, especially as Fabi's costume work is the most effective and activated design element in the production, the scene transitions might have been better served by letting the audience see what those transition moments mean to Regan herself; let us see her putting on her armor, let us see her bracing herself for another confrontation. Don't leave us in the dark. It makes the ninety-minute show seem longer than it is.

***

Running: Now playing at A.R.T./New York Theatres (Manhattan Repertory Theatre) - Opening: October 8, 2022. Closing: October 30, 2022.
Category: play
Length: 1 hour, 30 minutes, no intermission.

Creative Team

Playwright: David Harms
Director: Ken Wolf
Designers: Jack C. Golden (Set), Sabrinna Fabi (Costume), Yang Yu (Lighting), Katherine Cartusciello (Composer/Sound/Graphic), Jamie Monohan (Intimacy Director), Kyra Bowie (Production SM), Mary Garrigan (ASM).

Cast: Laura Shoop, Dominick LaRuffa Jr., Jennifer Pierro, Jane Robbins, Jeorge Bennett Watson, Maya Days, Nick Jordan, Madeline Grey Defreece, Kate Levy, Marc Webster.

Laura Shoop as Regan Van Riper. Photo by Cameryn Kaman.