Odette Gutierrez del Arroyo (Tania), Chuck Dluhy (Frank), Eddie Perez-Reyes (Pablo), and Judy Lewis (Virginia) in Native Gardens, playing now through April 13 at Aldersgate Church Community Theater. www.acctonline.org
Spring is in the air and flowers are blooming in “Native Gardens,” the Karen Zacarias play that shines a comedic light on the delicate dynamics between neighbors.
Set in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., “Native Gardens” is especially timely as the script addresses privilege, class and racism through the metaphor of gardening.
“Native Gardens is a comedy with a point,” said producer Marg Soroos. “We all can laugh at our preconceived notions that are frequently not what we anticipated. Reality can be quite different.”
Directed by Kate Ives, “Native Gardens” follows Pablo (Eddie Perez-Reyes) and Tania (Odette Gutierrez del Arroyo), a young Latino couple who are expecting a baby as they move into a historic Georgetown rowhouse. Next door are Virginia (Judy Lewis) and Frank (Chuck Dluhy), an older white couple.
Pablo is a high-powered attorney while Tania is working on her PhD. Their dream home is a fixer-upper, but Tania, an avid gardener, has plans to transform their outdoor space into a beautiful native garden.
Next door are Virginia and Frank Butley. Frank is a former long-term government employee with the General Services Administration who also has a passion for gardening. He and Tania initially bond over their mutual love for horticulture but tensions rise as she prefers an unencumbered indigenous garden to Frank’s more traditional European displays.
While Frank is determined to finally win the elusive Horticultural Society Best Garden Award, Pablo and Tania begin building a fence to showcase their garden while entertaining law firm clients. In the process they discover that their property line is two feet into Frank’s beloved garden.
As friction escalates, the two couples show their true colors. Zacarias asks the question, can such different people from totally different backgrounds find a way to compromise?
“This is a wonderfully relevant play about our perceptions and our prejudices, our hopes and dreams, our strengths and our fragilities, and at the bottom of it all, the human connection we all have,” said Ives. “All these characters are right and all of them are wrong, depending on which side of the fence they're on. As the audience, we get to see and sympathize with both sides and learn to be neighbors along with the characters.”
What begins as a property debate soon spirals into a comedic border dispute, exposing both couples’ notions of race, taste, entitlement and privilege.
“All of the characters in this play are good people,” said Chuck Dluhy, who plays Frank. “I classify ‘Native Gardens’ as a comedy with a message, similar to any Norman Lear sitcom of the 1970s. Frank says some things that might be considered racist, ageist or privileged and portraying him as sincerely innocent and ignorant rather than coming off as mean-spirited was a challenge.”
Despite the neighborly drama, the audience is treated to inside jokes that only come from living in the region with references to DC locales or jabs at government job stereotypes.
As Virginia, Lewis said she was challenged by the role.
“It was a challenge being ‘that’ white woman,” Lewis said. “I'm very liberal at heart, so to play part of a couple that's a bit more grounded in a conservative lifestyle forced me to break down my judgement and see the other side, learn where they're coming from.”
While Perez-Reyes could relate to his character’s drive to succeed and prove himself to his colleagues, his challenge was a common one to anyone living in the area.
“It was difficult identifying with a character who can afford to buy a house and comfortably support a family.”
In “Native Gardens,” Zacarías deftly weaves timely societal issues into fast-paced, humorous dialogue.
“I want the audience to recognize these characters as neighbors and even friends,” director Ives said. “I want them to recognize themselves, too, and remember that we all need a little grace now and then. And to remember that laughter - of which there is a lot in this play - is what gets us all through the day.”
“Native Gardens” is playing now through April 13 at Aldersgate Church Community Theatre, 1301 Collingwood Road, Alexandria, VA 22308. For tickets or more information visit www.acctonline.org.