Limitations are the Mother of Innovation.
Parley Theatre’s may have invented a new genre in their streamed production of Laundromat, by Greg Brisendine, now available for free on You Tube. The play’s original structure was a response to a number of factors: the technical limitations of the pandemic’s quarantine, causing abandonment of live performances and rehearsals as well as the innovative use of modern computer-screen technology. It was both funny, and endearing, as a motley crew of intense “individuals” gathers at the unsociable hours of 2 am to do their laundry at the Heart’s Desire Laundromat.
Interspersed with the storyline of what happens at the laundromat, is the creative process of the playwright, who wrestles on screen with different “friends-writing buddies” who prompt her with ideas for the plot, characters and questions about life and art (and its interrelationship) Like a spoken greek chorus, this serves to comment on the action, the characters and injects a huge amount of humor, especially with the stage directions.
There is a quirky basic plot, but the real substance is in the character development revealed through hilarious, at times sad, but always profound dialogue. The cast was uniformly superb: Janet Hietter as Jesse the matter of fact night-shift employee, Kelley Johnson as Tristan, a gym-rat work-out freak, Buddy Todd as Adrian, a somewhat bewildered newcomer, Ellen Dessler Smith as Shawn a completely sarcastic can-do person with something of a past, and C. Sebastian Grace as Reese, a peculiar hipster. Azana Nunez, plays Paige the playwright’s pal, who criticizes and questions everything and of course Gretchen Douma as the playwright, with a severe psychological issue.
All the characters have secrets, and they all crave connections. The author reveals that there are many ways to create community. Some people join churches, some people join political causes, some do sports, and some people find friendship and community doing their laundry at unsociable hours.
I heartily recommend this “play” as it is extremely enjoyable and has broken new ground in terms of form. Although the characters of the play-within-the-play are all millennials, the pre and post show music is orthodox baby-boomer; Peter, Paul and Mary and early Bob Dylan.
Laundromat. Parley Theatre, You tube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHQYS9UFWZU At any time. Free but donations are accepted.