“You’re all healthy, you glow like Mormons.” That backhanded compliment sums up the attitude of Greta, an aging philanthropist, toward a young ACLU fundraiser named Tanner in the crackling new two-hander The Ask. Matthew Freeman’s play is a mesmerizing matchup of wits and passions as Tanner pays a visit to Greta to suss out why the longtime supporter of the First Amendment champions has stopped contributing.
Old School vs. New
The answer, as it’s gradually and powerfully revealed, spotlights the American Left’s evolving ethos as a new politics of social justice and identity groups muddies the waters of Greta’s pure style of allegiance to the Constitution.
A picture of a dinosaur adorns the wall of Greta’s New York City apartment – and a dinosaur is what some of the ACLU’s recent priorities are making her feel like. Why is the organization devoting time and funds to causes like student loan forgiveness? Why does its language around reproductive rights use the term “pregnant person,” edging out, in Greta’s mind, the women who’ve fought so hard for their rights since the dawn of feminism? Why, Greta demands of trans-identifying Tanner, won’t you say “woman?”
Broadway veteran Betsy Aidem makes Greta a totally believable Jewish Second Wave feminist whose passion for abortion rights stems from both personal experience and fierce conviction. Colleen Litchfield (who, like Aidem, appeared in Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt on Broadway) conjures an equally ardent young development staffer (a tough job if there ever was one) as committed to their vision of activism as Greta is to hers.
Tight Quarters
Craig Napoliello’s perfectly rendered set frames the entire action. Greta’s modest, sensibly furnished living room speaks to her age, her energy (a phone call with her boyfriend dissolves the serious doings into a cataclysm of laughter) and her lack of ostentation. The room’s small size forces the two characters – I’m tempted to call them antagonists, though that’s not quite right – to engage viscerally.
Freeman’s sparkling script, easily one of the best of the year, surely demanded intense work from the actors as well as from director Jessi D. Hill. Their efforts make this rather intellectual material sing with emotion – and fun. Personality-based levity laces the drama as we follow each party’s argument wondering how the other will counter it.
You may have an opinion as to who “wins” the debate – I do – but both characters win in terms of honesty and believability. “Everything is ‘systemic,'” Greta wails. “It removes the individual!” The Ask gives us two distinct individuals and makes us feel for both, thanks to the superb script, performances, and production.
The Ask, from Theatre Accident and the Flying Carpet Theatre Company, runs through Sept. 28 at the wild project, 195 E. 3rd St., NYC. Tickets are available online.
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