Marianas Trench
Written by Scott C. Sickles; Direction and Projection Design by Janet Bentley
Alchemical Studios, 50 West 17th Street, 12th floor, NYC
Saturday, April 27 – Saturday, May 11
In my lifetime, war has been something that happens somewhere else. While December 7, 1941 is “a day that will live in infamy” and 9/11 is no different, they each were single days. Can you imagine the horror of that level of death and destruction befalling your country, your city, your neighborhood, day after day, after day? Mariupol was under siege for 80 days destroying 93% of the city. The UN just reported that it would take 14 years to clear the rubble that was once Gaza. One day, you had plans and hopes and dreams, and the next you were just trying to survive.
Historians will one day point out all the signs, just as news stations hire “experts” to explain what comes next. We are too many generations removed from the war between the states to remember that battles happened in your front yard, or that your cousin may become your enemy based upon the color of their uniform. But for at least the last 8 years, we have been told over and over again, that America has never been more divided. Not true of course - we’ve just forgotten.
Scott C. Sickles’ Marianas Trench takes place in a divided America. Divided in half, like North and South Korea, India and Pakistan, this Handmaid's Tale dystopia is the outcome of the growing cultural divide in the US. In the words of Colonel Taylor in The Planet of the Apes, “We finally really did it.”
Teddy Passanante and Anzor Khasanov are eleven-year-old pen pals writing to each other from the new countries that were once the USA. Teddy is a half-Korean going through a rough adolescence being bullied both at school and at home. Anzor is the child of Muslim refugees who fled their homeland for America only to land on the wrong side of the newly divided states. Though their correspondences are monitored and redacted, the boys form an unlikely friendship. A friendship that keeps them both sane and grounded during difficult times.
Directed by Janet Bentley, the cast deftly navigates Marianas Trench. They have chosen wisely to keep it simple – white walls, white cubes - but overlaid with rich projections. This simplicity allows the actors to focus on the action of the play which runs 2 hours with intermission. Nik Duggan and Timothy Kim, who play Anzor and Teddy respectively, are as skilled in creating the worlds of these 11 year olds as their characters are in creating a story of hope. Both have someone in their lives they can lean on when they aren’t able to communicate with their parents. For Teddy, it’s his grandfather, played by Jon Okabayashi. So well matched, one can imagine Kim and Okabayashi with their own weekly sitcom – hijinks ensue while the up-tight parents are busy at work. Anzor has the protection of his “uncle” portrayed by Perri Yaniv. Yaniv has a heavy load to bear as his storyline comes to a head in the second half. While he handles it with grace, I’m left to wonder if the playwright hasn’t straddled the character with too much responsibility.
Marianas Trench is the first play in Sickles’ The Second World Trilogy. Densely and dynamically written, the play could have been as easily set in an historical setting as easily as it has been in our fictional future. There is laughter, love, awkward adolescence, politics, religion and the irrepressible human spirit - our longing to endure. What happens to your world once battle lines are drawn? When your religion is not accepted by the state? When who you love isn’t acceptable to the state? And what happens when you aren’t watching this play out halfway around the world on TV - when it is your country, your city, your neighbors?
Readings of the next two plays, Pangea and The Known Universe, are scheduled for May 5th and 12th respectively. Plan accordingly – after seeing Marianas Trench, you will be left wanting to know what happens next.
Produced by Leviathan Lab & Roly Poly Productions, in association with Mixed Asian Media & Theater Resources Unlimited’s TRU Diversity.
Click HERE for tickets.
Reviewed by Nicole Jesson.
Published by Theatre Beyond Broadway on April 29th, 2024. All rights reserved.