It’s clear that Winnie Holzman is inside my head! And very likely the thoughts of many other women as well. Her play “Choice” is closing June 2 so get your tickets now. No kidding, now please!
Directed by Sarah Rasmussen with Andrew Boyce’ clever set and Raquel Adorno’s spot-on costumes, we get the flavor of every single character from the jump, even as we sense the mélange that has gone into the person we see before us. Everyone has a past, and some have a capital “P” Past. Each one makes our present and our future. Every step in any direction leads to a different possibility, and how do we know what is real other than our lived experience and our beliefs.
The production I saw was graced with three interpreters – a man and two women who had their work cut out for them. Ilana Levine’s Zippy is the main character – a writer whose words are razor sharp and insightful. She is about to interview a famous person who believes that a human she has just met and had a deep connection with may be part of CLAF – Children Lost and Found. Note – this is not a genuine organization, but a super-realistic invention of the Holzman’s brilliance. Zippy is in her 50s and finds it fascinating that an otherwise reasonable person would believe that someone born 9 months and 49 days after she aborted a fetus would contain the soul originally destined for that fetus. It is an interesting idea, but exclusively a plot device. Dakin Matthews is Zippy’s elderly husband Clark. He is brilliantly fuddled and unfuddled by turns. Their 20-something daughter Zoe is Caitlin Kinnunen who captures exactly every GenZ person in your sphere. Spot. ON. That’s not enough, as Ms. Kinnunen is also the hot-waxer that’s the “daughter” of the big honcho as well as the Minority Report-style caregiver who took care of Zippy when she had her college abortion. Switching very different personas like a weather vane changes directions is like watching a master class in dialogue acting. Zippy’s BFF since teen-dom is Erica (Kate Mulligan) and her costume in the first scene demonstrates both that she’s still embracing some of her thought patterns and was always stylish. Her friction with Zippy, they are even closer than sisters, mirrors some of her own conflicts. Price Waldman as Mark/Other Mark was delightful and Jake Cannavale’s Hunter keeps us second guessing who he is until the end, and beyond. Holzman includes some gimlet-eyed glances at the power of social media to distort and how she sees my thoughts pirouetting on the topic of choice is nothing short of astounding. Holzman isn’t tapping into the zeitgeist, she’s tap dancing on it! This show is a serious tour de force and it will leave you with a meal of pensive as you go.
“Choice” is done on June 2, so make sure you grab your besties and see it now! Visit the box office at www.McCarter.org.