If you haven't seen House and Garden at Trinity Rep, run do not walk to the box office. It closes soon, and you'll want to see both plays. There is a reason that Trinity has survived so long in a video/game world. Its long-standing ensemble troupe is full of top-notch acting and directing, and all they need is an excuse like House and Garden to show off.
These simultaneously twinned plays aren't mind-blowing insightful meta-performances that transform your understanding of the human condition with multimedia extravagance: they're perfectly made pieces of theater and stagecraft.
The short synopsis: House, at the upstairs theater, is a farce about a "manored" English family falling to pieces. Garden, at the downstairs theater, is a more earthly whirl about love and chaos.
The gimmick: both plays happen simultaneously with the same cast running up and down the stairs in real time. And it works.
The dynamic of two plays happening at the same time in the same building gets under your skin. Most of the time at the theater, you don't really think continuously about anything happening offstage. This time, you can't help but wonder.
When someone goes off in House, what are they doing in the Garden?
When someone races into the Garden, what happened in the House to upset them?
The story lines are nested and intertwined romances. Two youngsters hesitate and blush and stutter their way into new love. The older folk have more scars and secrets. One affair is ending, another beginning. Marriages are crumbling. All done with much laughter and melodrama.
A cynic would say that the entire piece is a marketing scam designed to hook you into buying two tickets, but the cynic would miss the fun. On their own, neither piece of writing is particularly remarkable, but taken as a pair you and your companions will have plenty to talk about after. You really can't help but get involved in both stories, and to see only one show does leave out half the equation. The experience of seeing the plays in either order will give you a conversation starting point, as will the argument about which order would have been "better".
Hard to say, since anyone who sees the two will experience it in a particular path.
I saw Garden on opening night and House a week earlier during the dress run for Garden. The actors found that they needed to run both plays at once just to rehearse the other.
Trinity's ensemble works together to pull off the event, and it's just a load of fun. Particular kudos to Annie Scurria and Barry Press for their incredible silences in the midst of chaos. Loud applause for Brian McEleney's direction for aiming to get every laugh, including several from the fountain.
The show is/are truly a performance of the entire company. If you want to understand what value theater has in a digital society, this is a great starting place. Go and see it. House and Graden are playing at At Trinity Rep Company through June 30. For tickets visit their website.
Mark Binder is the author of The Brothers Schlemiel – the unabridged novel of Chelmand the forthcoming Cinderella Spinderella.
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