Good comedy is often uncomfortable

By STU CLAMPITT
news@readthereporter.com

Carmel Community Players (CCP) is “sort of” welcoming you to the neighborhood when they stage the comedy Native Gardens at The Cat, 254 Veterans Way, Carmel, from Aug 7 to 16. CCP will be very welcoming to you as a member of the audience, but those poor characters on stage will have a very different experience.

The Reporter spoke with CCP Director Lori Raffel and her cast about what you can expect in a show about new neighbors, property rights, and shaking up the status quo.

Raffel told The Reporter Native Gardens is one of the top 10 most-produced plays in the country right now, even though most people in Indiana have never heard of it.

“I read the script and I just fell in love with it because it’s very funny, but it’s also touching,” Raffel said. “It’s about two sets of neighbors who start out with all the greatest of intentions and things kind of go badly from there.”

Frank and Virginia are an old white couple who have lived in the same place forever. Now they have new neighbors with different Hispanic heritages – Pablo from Chile and his wife Tanya from New Mexico.

At issue is a plan for a new fence and the discovery that the old fence is 23 inches off the actual property line. The new fence will have to go in the middle of Frank’s almost award-winning backyard garden.

“Frank is played by Larry Adams,” Raffel said. “I have to tell you, when I first read this show, I thought, ‘Well, I want Larry Adams as Frank,’ because he has such a sincerity that he brings to everything.”

Adams, whom readers will know from his numerous reviews of plays he does not star in, told The Reporter he has very little in common with his character in Native Gardens.

“I’m supposed to be the one who knows all about plants and gardening, and I’ve got all these lines about it, and I know nothing about gardening,” Adams said. “I rattle off all these plants, and I couldn’t even tell you what they are. So I’ve got to pretend that I know all about this stuff, but I don’t know any of it. My character is also supposed to be pretty uptight and OCD. Most people would tell you I am not uptight or OCD. So I think the only connection I have is I’m an old guy like he is.”

Adams said he found the script both entertaining and important for modern audiences.

“It’s a nice balance of humor, but it actually tackles some interesting issues,” Adams said. “I think the gardening piece of this and the property dispute and all that is somewhat peripheral. Although it’s kind of the construct in which everything is hung on, it’s a bit peripheral. This is, to me, really a show about divisions. I think in the divisive world that we live in today, it’s kind of a nice thing to point these things out and show that they’re silly and they actually don’t make much difference in the large scheme of things.”

Adams plays opposite Oscar Ortiz, whose character is a Chilean immigrant named Pablo.

“Pablo is a very, very ambitious man,” Ortiz told The Reporter. “He’s got a bit of a chip on his shoulder from being an immigrant, kind of feeling like he has something to prove. He has a very interesting background where he’s an immigrant in this country and he feels looked down on, like he’s got something to prove here. But in Chile, he comes from a very affluent, rich family. He grew up with a lot of privilege. He’s left his family behind to start this new life in the United States with his wife, who is from New Mexico. He feels a bit like a fish out of water.”

Ortiz told The Reporter he is interested to see how audiences respond to a comedy about heavy issues.

“I’m really excited for everybody to see it,” Ortiz said. “It’s a really thoughtfully written play and it’s very light-hearted. It’s a nice, refreshing change of pace to see a lot of these issues of race and immigration and just different identities being brought in such a light-hearted way.”

Yolanda Valdivia plays Pablo’s wife, Tanya.

“Tanya is a very passionate woman,” Valdivia said. “In the play she is expecting her first child. She is also working on her dissertation, so she is very driven. She is an anthropologist who is interested in place, how we claim it, and the power of language. Because of the way she looks, she would be discriminated against or considered less-than. She brings all of that into the story and how she approaches the situation with her neighbors.”

Vickie Cornelius Phipps plays the role of Virginia, Frank’s wife. Phipps said she was drawn to this play because of the many “isms” it addresses.

“I think it hits all the isms that we’re dealing with right now,” Phipps said. “And I think it will flare up people when they see it in their face. But it’ll also shine [a light on] what their ‘isms’ are, too. I just think it’s a cathartic show for everyone.”

One of the uncomfortable moments in this play is when Virginia has a verbal altercation with Tanya and accuses Tanya of classism and racism because Virginia and Frank are rich and white.

“It’s a little uncomfortable at first, to put that out there, so I’ll be curious to see how the audience responds,” Phipps said. “But we hit Democrats and Republicans. And we hit different cultures and education. My character climbed her way up in the world to be an engineer. She worked with all men for 20 years, so she’s pretty aggressive and confident – not confrontational, but she’s very protective. She’ll go to battle if she believes she’s right.”

Phipps said she enjoys this play because of the uncomfortable isms.

“I think we live in a climate right now where people are afraid to talk about it,” Phipps said. “And I think the more we can talk about it, the more acceptable and more comfortable we can live with our own isms and the perceptions that we have of other people. We assume the younger couple is Mexican because of their coloring, but they’re not. So we’re [Virginia and Frank] are kind of like, ‘Well, we love Mexico. It’s a great place.’ And then it becomes a little uncomfortable because we stuck our foot in our mouth. And we’re the older couple, so ageism comes into it. So, like I said, there’s just a lot of isms that are touched on in this little 90-minute play.”

You can meet the neighbors, laugh (sometimes uncomfortably) about your own isms, and explore backyard property rights in one of the fastest growing communities in the nation when CCP brings Native Gardens to the stage this month. Go to carmelplayers.org/tickets or call (317) 815-9387 for tickets.