Native Gardens at Asheville Community Theatre
No use beating around the proverbial bush: Native Gardens is the best production Asheville Community Theatre has staged since Rabbit Hole in 2019.
Their latest winner also continues an encouraging recent trend kicked off last summer by Flat Rock Playhouse’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner of crowd-pleasing local theater companies tackling, well, thornier issues than usual. But whether the content is 55 years old like Dinner or a mere four like Gardens, the results have thus far proven just as enthralling as a musical comedy or a farcical mystery, and given attendees more to contemplate in the days following the performances.
Furthermore, with both productions it’s not merely the content that warrants such high praise. At FRP and ACT, the casts and crews seem well aware of the material’s potential to spark conversation and build community, and put their all into achieving those ends.
Written by Karen Zacarías, Native Gardens centers on longtime Georgetown residents Virginia (Kathy O’Connor) and Frank Butley (David Mycoff) as they adjust to new neighbors Tania (Meghan Marcelo) and Pablo del Valle (Kevin Bonilla). While their initial interactions are merely marred by the almost-retired White couple’s comedically tone-deaf musings on race, the environment, and other stances forged during the Reagan administration, tensions escalate when the del Valles discover that Frank’s beloved flower garden just over the fence is actually on their property.
Before we get to the merits of writing, acting, and Candace Taylor’s superb direction, however, praise must be given to the set on which it all unspools. So awe-inspiring is Jill Summers’ authentic-looking scenic design that she very well may have driven up to Washington, D.C., and transported two fully-stocked backyards down to Asheville — soil, plants, and all.
Within this thoroughly believable setting is one of those rare instances in local theater where a true square of talent is present. Supported by the equal distribution of Zacarías’ funny, touching, and sometimes shocking lines, and Taylor’s palpable understanding of how the rich material should be performed, all four leads are comparably strong. Not only do O’Connor, Mycoff, Marcelo, and Bonilla support each other and shine in their various permutations, they do so without being overly showy, creating memorable, human, and humane personas in the process.
And while the stars all earn plenty of laughs throughout the brisk, 85-minute, intermission-free event, a tightly-wound O’Connor hate-smoking a cigarette is one of the funniest sights you’ll see all year; an extended bit with Marcelo, Bonilla, and a tub of ice cream nails its punchline; and Mycoff’s Frank noting he almost voted for Obama and going back and forth with his wife on how all the things they like are now taboo is likewise memorable. (His anguished lament of “Cat Stevens” is especially amusing.)
As the neighborly situation becomes decidedly un-neighborly, Native Gardens addresses some of the same generational and interracial subject matter as Kenya Barris’ recent comedy You People, but more subtly and gracefully — and without the speechifying. A proper pupil of Chekhov, Zacarías makes every detail count while taking such seemingly inevitable elements as Tania’s pregnancy and having them impact the plot in surprising ways.
Also pleasantly unexpected is Taylor and her team’s decision to employ string arrangements of such songs as “Take On Me,” “Another One Bites the Dust,” and “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” between scenes. The combination of classical and pop proves a practically ideal fit for the classy neighborhood and its intersection of neighbors from different generations and backgrounds. Additionally, it serves as a kind of Greek chorus, playfully commenting on what’s just occurred and what may be next while never feeling intrusive.
It’s the cherry atop an already delicious sundae, and should be devoured immediately.
Native Gardens runs through Feb. 26 at Asheville Community Theatre. For details and tickets, visit ashevilletheatre.org.
(Photo by Eli Cunningham)
