From left, Stu James, Perry Ojeda and Meredith Thomas in “Slow Food.” Photo by Mike Bradecich
By Steve Simmons – Published at 7 p.m., May 5, 2021
For theatergoers craving a comedy with bite during these trying times, International City Theatre has the answer. The Long Beach-based theatre company is streaming its virtual presentation of Wendy MacLeod’s witty Slow Food now through Sunday, May 16. (For details see below.)
The premise is simple. Irene and Peter, two vacationing empty-nesters, arrive famished at a Palm Springs restaurant after traveling from the East Coast and enduring multiple travel indignities–lost luggage, a broken hot tub at their hotel, a mix-up with their rental car–and at the only open restaurant, they encounter a wacky waiter who uses every excuse and reason to keep them from their desperately needed meals.
Stu James (NAACP, Broadway World and Scenie award-winner for Recorded in Hollywood) and Meredith Thomas (Lifetime’s The Wrong Crush and The Wrong Boy Next Door alongside Vivica A. Fox) star as the traditional middle-class, middle-aged couple hoping to celebrate 23 wonderful years of marriage with a special dinner at a Greek restaurant. Perry Ojeda (Is He Dead? at ICT; Broadway productions of On the Town, Blood Brothers, Imaginary Friends) is the flamboyant well-meaning waiter who insinuates his way into their meal, and who wants so much to shepherd them through the perfect dining experience that nothing — not even a bread basket — can reach the table.
“They’re a great group of actors to work with,” says director Marya Mazor of the cast she chose.
Mazor found two main motivations for mounting the production. “I was aware and fond of Wendy’s work. And I think in this moment people need joy and laughter after such a challenging year. I was drawn to it and it’s hard to find good comedy.”
According to International City Theatre artistic director caryn desai [sic], “We all need to laugh, now more than ever. Of course, there’s no substitute for live, human communication and connection. But, in the meantime, we must find ways to keep connected and engaged until we can once again come together safely.”
Photo by Mike Bradecich
A Comedy With Flavor
Looking beyond its comedic conceit, the play touches on themes audiences can chew on. “It’s about marriage, of course,” MacLeod has said, “two people living together, without always getting what they need.”
The events of the night force the couple to examine their past as well as their future together. “It looks at midlife in general and this couple is going through big changes,” says Mazor. “It deals with the phase of marriage where your kids have grown and you’re empty nesters. They finally have the time for themselves, they say ‘we’ve finally got our lives back, but what do we do now.’ They aren’t sure how to navigate it.”
“And,” says Mazor, “it turns out that over the course of the evening they realize they can rekindle romance and work together. They discover they have a lot of strengths they didn’t know they had.”
According the Mazor, what first looks like a light comedy, also explores the politics of class “and how we treat one another. The waiter encounters a cranky couple who’ve been through the ringer and he turns the tables. The man sees the waiter there to serve, and the waiter takes control. And in this moment in history, we’re asking who’s an essential worker, and the play points out that we’re all essential in different ways. We’re all part of the same fabric and the waiter just wants respect.”
Photo by Mike Bradecich
Putting It Together
“We had a crazy production process,” says Mazor. After eight weeks of Zoom rehearsals, the performance was recorded with the actors in separate locations against a green screen. Video editor Mike Bradecich assembled all the recordings and scene designer Antonio Beach, created custom backgrounds to create the atmosphere of a Greek taverna. Other than the earbuds, it’s hard to believe the actors aren’t occupying the same space.
“We’d love to be back in the theater and in person, but I think this hybrid version—a mix of film theatre, film and TV techniques—allows us to get the play across,” says Mazor. “And it’s exciting to test the boundaries of actors in virtual space.”.
The creative team also includes sound designer Dave Mickey, who opens the show with music that makes one yearn for Nana Mouskouri, costume designer Kim DeShazo, who conducted fittings via Zoom, and prop masterPatty Briles, who delivered libations and more to actors’ homes.
Normal stagings of the play can be challenging with the action mostly confined to a couple talking and waiting for their dinner. “But that makes it perfect for a pandemic,” says Mazor, “and easy for remote production. We didn’t have to worry about where we were going to film.”
Finding Inspiration
That Mazor came to direct this current production, was the result of “great synchronicity,” she says. The company was planning to do the play last season and MacLeod was on its radar. desai reached out to Mazor, who had done her recent ICT show there, and she contacted MacLeod. “I had spoken to her, not about her inspiration for the play, which I knew about, but about specific moments,“ says Mazor, a Long Beach local whose previous work with the company was Alan Lester Brooks’ A Splintered Soul.
Playwright Wendy MacLeod is best known as the author of Women in Jeopardy! and as a writer for the TV cult sensation Popular. She has also earned acclaim and awards for the plays Schoolgirl Figure, a black comedy about assassination fetish, The House of Yes, The Water Children and Juvenilia. The film version of The House of Yes, starring Parker Posey, won the Sundance Award and international acclaim. A professor at Kenyon College and Northwestern University, MacLeod regularly writes for The New York Times, Salon, McSweeney’s, The Washington Post and NPR’s All Things Considered.
“The play was inspired by a real evening I spent with my family,” MacLeod has said in interviews. “Everybody was tired, and hungry, and it was Sunday night and we found one restaurant still open, and we sat down to order our meal, and we encountered the most extraordinary waiter that I’ve ever met. And by that, I mean bad. The worst waiter I have ever, ever had. And he seemed to kind of thrill to his power to control whether or not we got our food and drinks and when we got them and who got them first. It was just a fascinating character study. In this case, the situation involved a simple want — we needed food — and that goal offers a dramatic engine. And my playwright’s brain was tickled by wondering: how many things could the couple do to try to get the food? And how long could the waiter keep them there without bringing it?”
“Wendy’s plays are done all over,” says Mazor, “and a tribute to audiences that really respond to her tone and wit.” And Slow Food is very California specific, especially with references to the high desert.
First produced by Marrimack Repertory Theatre in Lowell, Mass. in 2019, the play was developed during a residency at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s Playwrights Conference in Waterford, Conn. in 2015, featuring Jane Kaczmarek as Irene. Subsequent productions have been at the Dorset Theatre Festival in Vermont, the Boise Contemporary Theater in Utah and Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, N.Y.
Slow Food streams on demand through May 16 on Thursdays, Fridays, Satu
