‘The Lights Are On’ evaluation: Catastrophizing concerning the Future

Owen Panettieri's play "The Lights Are On" offers a dispiriting preview of what a lot of our homes may also appear to be sooner or later.

The muddled play, a co-construction of New mild Theater task and Embeleco unlimited, takes place in the living quarters of Liz (Danielle Ferland), a doomsday prepper who spends her days pacing about her storm-boarded condo, inspecting sundry materials and sorting jars of canned meals. 5 years prior, hurricane Prudence ravaged her home. "Afterwards, there wasn't a whole lot price saving. all of it needed to go," she rely-of-factly tells her neighbor Trish (Jenny publisher 1st baron verulam).

The play starts off when a discombobulated Trish visits Liz because she thinks someone may have damaged into her domestic. the two haven't spoken in seven years, yet nothing in Sarah Norris's path conveys a way of estrangement. as an alternative, without problems hearing Liz's voice looks to lessen Trish's blood pressure through a number of degrees, and shortly they're chatting as with no trouble as if Trish had stopped via for a coffee chat after Sunday capabilities.

initially, the pair current a look at in contrasts: Trish, together with her silk properly and expensive haircut, comes from inherited wealth, whereas Liz, along with her loosefitting flannel shirt and mother denims, is working classification. Yet as they trap up and catastrophize about the world, certain egocentric similarities between the two women emerge. Trish has always been too preoccupied with her personal existence to agree with the needs of her neighbor; all the way through storm Prudence, she refused to admit Liz and her son, Nathan (Marquis Rodriguez), into the safety of her domestic. For her half, Liz has turned her apartment "into a prison" for herself and her son, Trish notes.

An ambient feel of the uncanny pervades the play, however the purpose is unclear. What to make of the incontrovertible fact that most effective Trish can hear something pawing at plaster? Why is a knob on a cabinet affixed to the incorrect aspect? Why do characters confer with nonexistent "meals on the range" and mistake tea for wine? And any tension the play accrues is again and again dispelled with the aid of retirement-in a position stereotypes of the hysterical lady (Trish) and ball-and-chain mom (Liz).

Panettieri's imaginative and prescient of capitalism is also cartoonish, whether the absurd "Transformers"-sounding names of the big firms Trionics and Meglamax or the fanciful suggestion that Liz herself has a capitalist streak. She has a facet hustle promoting provisions at "very low-cost" markups, in accordance with Nathan, but we certainly not see her take orders from purchasers, print packing slips or prepare gadgets for shipment. The range of stuff overtaking her kitchen like kudzu doesn't seem like on the market, however stockpiled in case of an apocalyptic adventure. Which might as smartly have arrived on the end of the play's 95 molasses-gradual minutes. while Panettieri's drama has no quandary imagining the end of the world, imagining convincing characters is a more difficult project.

The Lights Are OnThrough Nov. eleven at Theater Row, manhattan; newlighttheaterproject.com. running time: 1 hour 35 minutes.

This evaluation is supported by using vital Minded, an initiative to invest within the work of cultural critics from historically underrepresented backgrounds.

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