American Blues Theater is kicking off its 40th-anniversary season in style with the world premiere of Kristoffer Diaz’s “Things With Friends,” a quirky 90-minute one act that could be called “a New Yorker’s case of extreme angst.”
Increasingly well known for work like the Broadway musical “Hell’s Kitchen,” created with Alicia Keys and nominated for 13 Tony Awards, and the Pulitzer Prize-nominated play “The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity,” Diaz here has elevated the stress we feel about climate change and our apparent inability to fix it into an absurdist dark comedy about the fragility of friendship and how a crisis brings out the worst in people.
Unfortunately, “Things With Friends” comes across as a work in progress that doesn’t entirely know where it’s going or what it wants to say. Along the way are some elements given undue importance that don’t make sense, and the apocalyptic ending, while predictable, seems unearned.
These shortcomings show despite the all-in direction by Dexter Bullard, the committed acting by the more than capable cast and the staging, especially the scenic design by Grant Sabin, the lighting by Levi J. Wilkins, the sound by Rick Sims, costumes by Lily Walls and the properties design by Amy Peter.
Most of the humor in the piece can be attributed to the narrator, who is identified in the program as NYC (Nate Santana), so maybe he’s supposed to be the city itself, though I’m not sure. Wearing a baseball-like cap and carrying a small notebook, he sometimes moves through the audience, addressing us directly, and sometimes joins the actors on stage and interacts with them.
From NYC, whose wry delivery is often very funny, we learn that we’re looking at the spacious apartment of Adele (Audrey Billings) and Burt (Casey Campbell). He describes it and them in some detail, including the art and the fact that they’re affluent enough to have a budget for art. We soon find out that the apartment is on the 27th floor with expansive floor-to-ceiling windows and has a view of the George Washington Bridge—or would have if the bridge hadn’t collapsed into the Hudson River.
There are other signs that something is not right. Adele and Burt are expecting another couple, Vy (Cruz Gonzalez-Cadel) and Chabby (Jon Hudson Odom), for dinner, but the steak Burt is cooking (sizzle, smoke and all) isn’t big enough for four people, and there’s nothing else—no salad, no sides—except some bread and a bottle of red wine. Anyway, Vy and Chabby are late and have other engagements before and after, so may not stay long, or so Adele and Burt have been led to believe.
Then very stylish Vy and Chabby, who used to be Adele and Burt’s best friends and neighbors on the 27th floor but have moved to New Jersey, show up, and the situation becomes stranger and stranger. And more sinister. They blame Burt, a bridge-builder, for not getting the city to fix the bridge, and they want Adele and Burt to move to New Jersey, too.
They say they’re only thinking of their friends’ well-being, but as it turns out, they have selfish ulterior motives and even resort to blackmail — only I don’t want to give too much away. As things are about to come to blows, Vy and Chabby’s goofy teenage daughter Joony (Maya Lou Hlava) arrives with a saga of her adventures that engages Adele but not her own parents, who don’t take much of an interest in her except to disapprove. It doesn’t help that her tale exposes some of Vy and Chabby’s many lies, and they crumble in the presence of their daughter.
A climax of sorts involves a tray of sweet potatoes fresh out of the oven that the guests can’t resist, so much so that Vy and Chabby stuff their mouths to keep Joony from getting any. I have no idea why and thought the potatoes might be poisoned, but such was not the case, so the symbolism must have escaped me.
What Diaz does best in “Things With Friends” is build tension. Now he needs to figure out what to do with it that isn’t a letdown.
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