Theater Review: Fruiting Bodies Is A Mushroom Hunt For Forgiveness
Fruiting Bodies left me torn. On one hand, it is a play about forgiveness of one’s self, and, on another, it is about mushrooms. Playing at Theatre Row, the Ma-Yi Theater company have delivered a play that asks you to look through the forest and all its bodies to see how they symbolize the human spirit.
The play focuses on Thom Sesma’s Ben, and his two daughters: Kimiye Corwin’s Mush and Emma Kikue’s Vicky whom all feel, in some fashion, like they are not achieving the most in their life. Ben regrets his floundering relationship with his once favored son, Eddie. Mush is determined to devalue all things deemed successful and beautiful because she feels like she is neither, and Vicky is eager to connect with her father, who does not even see her efforts. The point is each character aims for something “more” while needing to, truly, get better about what they have. Yet, that is np easy feat when you struggle to openly claim and accept that you want to get better, and are searching for each other in a darkening forest. Enter Jeffrey Omura as the role of Boy.
Omura steals the show for multiple reasons. He plays various characters, of which you do not know when he is living, phantasmic, or a literal, mushroom delusion. For Ben, the forest is a place to escape his guilt over banishing his son for being gay and now missing out on his life. What he did to punish Eddie became his own punishment, of which mushroom hunting proves to be a hallucinatory escape. Thanks to Omura the hunt becomes both fantastical and redemptive. His ability to switch into new roles is enthralling, and pushes Corwin’s Mush and Kikue’s Vicky to analyze their own perceptions of their life’s “role.”
Kikue’s Vicky oddly reminds me of Daria. She is bitter, snarky, smart, and loving. She wants to give her heart to her family but their dysfunction could close anyone off. Corwin’s Mush is hilarious, but her inability to accept that she is alarmed by her life’s “messiness” prompts her own “journey” through the forest, of which Omura’s Boy unites every member of the family through their care and rebuking of him. It is how they coddle, push, and pull away from this child that writer Sam Chanse and Director Shelley Butler are allowed to bring up themes of “passing,” sexism, homophobia, and the prejudices that are born from what we deem “beautiful” or “ugly.”
At 100 minutes, Fruitiing Bodies really does pick up in its latter half as the pieces of its emotional puzzle begin to align. It becomes clearer in its messages and attempts to redeem characters that, once again, do not claim they want redemption while, oddly, seeking it. Like its forested set, Chanse’s writing is earthy and imaginative; trying to picture the inner pains we do not know how to express outwardly. For this reason, Ma Yi- Theater’s Fruiting Bodies succeeds in bringing forth a tale of self-reflection and growth; even if it is amongst a lot of mushroom talk. Fruiting Bodies plays at Theatre Row till May 19. Located 410 West 42nd Street. Click Here To Buy Tickets.
