"Cost of Living" at Manhattan Theatre Club

MTC production photo by Julieta Cervantes

I'm not sure why I hadn't heard of this play before. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2018 for its playwright, Martyna Majok. Then it ran Off-Broadway for a while, and is now on Broadway at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. We grabbed two of the very few tickets available on our first night in New York City, starting a run of seven shows in five days--yes, we're back! And two more of those shows also won Pulitzers. Should be a good week!

The Play

The text of the play mostly shies away from the dramatic. It's conversational, not confrontational, and most of the scenes are fairly straightforward, domestic discussions. But there's definitely more to it. There are four characters in the play, two of whom are in wheelchairs, and the other two are in varying degrees their caretakers.

The story of one pair, Ani and Eddie, is pretty difficult. They are separated, getting divorced, and both struggle financially. When Ani has difficulty with retaining a caretaker, Eddie offers to step in. The dialogue between them is sharp and often bitter, but eventually settles into only occasional jabs.

The other pair, John and Jess, doesn't have the same personal background baggage, but there are plenty of issues. John, a graduate student at Princeton, needs a caretaker daily. Jess, a Princeton graduate herself, is struggling to find meaningful employment, mostly working as a bartender. Despite some reservations, John hires her.

As the play progresses, each pair develops kind of a thaw in the initial tensions, but underlying and external issues keep cropping up. And eventually, the story lines intersect, at least somewhat. It's really a good piece of writing, with interesting story lines and believable dialogue.

There are some loose threads, some questions that are not answered, some origins that are not really explained. But that seems to be intentional, and Eddie even says, "the shit that happens to you is not to be understood." This is definitely a play about the shit that happens to people, and some of it is clearly not meant to be understood, just seen and appreciated.

The Production

The set (designed by Wilson Chin) is pretty intricate and striking. Although there are not a lot of different locations, the scene changes can be pretty stark, so the designers make good use of a turntable on the stage and various pieces that fly in from above. That part is very well done.

All four actors are quite strong and mesh well. John (Gregg Mozgala) and Ani (Katy Sullivan) are from the original, Off-Broadway cast.In particular, Eddie (David Zayas)'s opening solo scene is very well done, very effective in setting the stage for the rest of the show, and he and Sullivan portray working-class New Jerseyites quite effectively. Jess (Kara Young) and John (Gregg Mozgala) do a terrific job of portraying the awkwardness of establishing an intimate working relationship from scratch.

All of the portrayal of disability is well-done, particularly because of its authenticity. Sullivan is a double amputee who has competed in the Paralympics, and Mozgala has cerebral palsy. Neither is as profoundly disabled as the characters they portray, but the lived experience is clear and makes the caretaking scenes particularly effective.

Director Jo Bonney does a good job of keeping things moving smoothly. There are enough scene changes and dramatic shifts that the play could bog down, but the pacing is crisp and at roughly two hours without and intermission, the play doesn't seem long at all.

Bottom Line

I like the play and the production very much. Although the characters' disabilities are important aspects of the plot, this is not, ultimately, a play about disability. It is instead profoundly about the need for human connections and the difficulty of establishing and maintaining them.

I found the play very moving, even if the closing scene is difficult to comprehend. We don't get pounded with the author's message, but it seeps in from everywhere. Good performances, good script. Definitely worth seeing.

The show runs through the month of October. Check it out!