Theater Review: Bitter Greens Is Gossip Girl For Vegans
I LOOOOOOVED Bitter Greens. I ate that show up. (Pun Intended!) It was Gossip Girl smashed together with a healthy living lifestyle; matching treating your body well with letting your soul rot. People loved Gossip Girl is because it showed being rich and beautiful does not veil you from being horrible, and, at 59E59 Theater, Bitter Greens showed that nor does being healthy. Written and starring Clea Decrane, I felt like I was watching the beginning of a star in acting and playwriting.
Decrane is smart, nuanced, and aware of the spiritual murkiness that comes with being spoiled. Reyna is a young woman that has had everything she has every wanted, including luck, but, as all post-grads learn, the real world does not guarantee you success because you are good and work hard. First, she is betrayed by her boyfriend, Andrew (Andy Do), whom applies to her dream job without telling her and gets it. Of course, his getting a job is not “bad”, but if you have spent the last four years of your relationship/ life talking about this job, telling your every application detail to your partner, and they are notoriously indecisive about everything, you take his application as a betrayal. Second, Andrew’s blossoming flirtation with one of her best “frenemies,” Caitlin (Jessica Darrow), starts to quietly eat at her. Third, she cannot get any job in her environmentalism field, despite being overly qualified, and now has to work at a local chain restaurant. Life is certainly humbling Reyna, which leads her to commit poisonous actions.
Decrane makes Reyna a fascinating character because she, literally, loses her mind by not being emotionally honest with both herself and others. She never says what is bothering her about her relationships, in part, because she does not question them. Yet, she is not alone. Next to Reyna are her two college buddies that are also at a turning point over their lives’ lack of turns. Regan Sims is a beacon of light at Lily. She is so natural, funny, and sweet, you think she is Lily, and the character is a magnet for attention because her consistent benevolence when compared to Reyna or even Caitlin. By far, Darrow makes Caitlin the liveliest and wittiest character. She enters the living room set like a tour de force, but, like Reyna, she is not not emotionally honest. If Reyna fakes her joy through pretty smiles, Caitlin does it with biting snark. Together, they continue Bitter Greens as an analysis on how we fail to prepare the young for the “real world.”
Meg Jay calls your twenties “The Defining Decade,” and Bitter Greens exemplifies why. You have these talented, visionary young people that have no idea where to place their creativity and wants, especially after rejection. Each character, from the employed, easy-going Andrew and to Lily’s “abundance” seeking boyfriend Jack (Ben Lorenz), are stuck. They do not know how to embrace life for all that it is because the world does not embrace them for all that they are. Yet, maybe that is the problem? Directed by Kevin Little, by the end of this 90 minute play, you are confronted by the same existential crisis of its characters; who are you? what is the world? Most people think they know who they are and experience “the world” once they have success, but, as Reyna shows, it is your failures that reveal your character.
Your failures are as educative to your person as your accomplishments. After all, your soul can be more built by your reactions to situations then your actions. Thus, by the end of Bitter Greens, you feel reactive. Shady reveals, duplicitous motives, and deliciously devious plot twists turn this play about a group of people trying to live healthier into a soap opera on twenty-somethings that need to be better. Bitter Greens Is Playing Until December 23 at 59E59 Theatre. Click Here To Buy Tickets.
