Not having witnessed Miles for Mary, a previous work developed by The Mad Ones that scored considerable acclaim when it was performed at Playwrights Horizons in early 2018, I cannot compare it to Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie, the company’s newest creation, which opened on Monday.
A hyper-real slice of life set in the late 1970s, Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie observes a focus group of mostly white, middle class people who have been assembled to consider possible spin-offs for a popular TV show for kiddies that mixed actors and puppets.
As the session gets started by Dale, the facilitator, the six adult participants cheerfully introduce themselves. During the next 90 minutes or so—the play happens in real time—as they discuss different aspects of the eponymous show under Dale’s guidance, several among these individuals gradually provide insights into their lives. Some of them also more or less get on each other’s nerves. Meanwhile Jim, Dale’s associate, mutely exhausts himself in trying to write down the characters’ various responses across a chalkboard.
There is no larger story essentially, and nothing especially dramatic happens during this meeting. Coffee and donuts get consumed. A few people get tetchy. The end.
An occasionally amusing study in human behavior, the point of Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie, if there is one, proves elusive. Sometimes a slice of life is simply no more than a slice of life, no matter how nicely it may be executed by the designers and actors. Although some spectators (who are so inclined) can certainly admire the ultra-real quality of these subtle performances, others are likely to find this event to be a total snooze.
Making the piece even more challenging to comprehend, let alone enjoy, is that this fictional TV program and its elements that everybody is conversing about here are, of course, totally unknown to the audience. So the differing perceptions that these people express cannot be appreciated as clues to their inner selves.
The Mad Ones is a company in residence with Ars Nova, which presents this premiere at Greenwich House. The lofty performance space has been configured for this attraction so that the audience watches it from a cater-corner diagonal. The realistic setting suggests a VFW-type recreation hall where a round table and chairs have been positioned for the group’s session. Asta Bennie Hostetter’s period costumes look appropriate for the characters. The lights are turned on at the start of the show and turned off at the conclusion.
Whether viewers will be turned on by such deliberately mundane doings depends upon their willingness and ability to perceive the relatively itsy-bitsy reactions registered by the characters. “If you believe it, you can be it” is a lyric from the theme song for Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie, and the actors prove to be very believable in the verisimilitude of their performances as directed by Lila Neugebauer. All eight actors are credited along with the director as the writers of this work.
One suspects that the artists probably had a better time creating their show than whatever pleasure that its observers will derive from watching them bring their little piece of the late ‘70s to ultra-real life.
