"Hearts of Palm" at Central Works

Photo Credit: ACT OUT Photography by Jim Norrena

You never quite know what you're going to get at Central Works. It's all new plays, all world premieres, and tonight I found myself sitting right behind playwright Patricia Milton at a performance of her current play, "Hearts of Palm." The newness definitely shows: there are some really uneven bits, but they are balanced by some very clever material and earnest performances.

Quick Summary

Representatives from Empire Holdings (OK, some of this is a little heavy-handed) are in the small island nation of Marititu to negotiate a land deal so they can grow more palm trees to produce palm oil for consumer products. We get lectured a bit about conflict palm oil and the power of Girl Scouts writing letters and such, but once we get into the meat of the play, there is some promising material about negotiations, hidden agendas, loyalty, and treachery.

This being Berkeley, I would have liked to see a bit more subtlety about the theme of "corporate colonialism." It's no secret to anyone in the theater that corporations have done unspeakably horrible things to lots of "third world" countries in the name of profit, so we don't need quite so much spoon-feeding of it. In short, I wish Milton would leave a bit more room for us to read between the lines.

She does a better job with the interpersonal relationships. There is a bit too much exposition in the opening scene between Vi and Brittany, but otherwise, it's well done. And the clownish character Strap is kind unbelievably and unevenly clueless on a negotiating team. Again, I would have liked to see him afforded some of the subtlety that Vi and Brittany display. Both Strap and Helen provide comic relief, but could use a bit of smoothing to make them less farcical. The native negotiator, Ni-Bethu, played with evenhanded smoothness by Michelle Talgarow, is the one character who manages to surprise with her little twists at the end.

Stuff to Like

Overhearing some of the other audience members who had seen the play earlier in the run, I get the impression that the smoothness and cohesion has improved over the course of the run. A play with the level of complexity and quick dialogue that this one has is likely to have a rough launch, especially if there is still work happening on the script.

But again, that's one of the attractions of Central Works. If you're looking for the comfort of an old classic, you'll find it somewhere else. This theater is all about promoting and producing new works, and that necessarily entails some bumps and jolts. But the rewards come, too. Between the blunt agenda and some slips in the lines, there are some clever ideas and good thoughts. My wife summed it up well as we left, that this play shows a lot of promise.

Extended

We went to the show tonight because it was literally the only performance we could schedule on the original run. As it turns out, they have extended the run an additional week, so it now closes on August 21 instead of the original date of August 14. Since they perform Thursday-Sunday, that's four additional shows you can now attend!

And it's worth it if you are willing to accept that it's not going to have the same level of polish you might expect in other theater companies. Tonight's audience definitely enjoyed the show in the spirit of the Central Works company.

Now I'm off with the family for the second half of our Ashland summer, so lots more play postings coming soon!