It would be a good idea for playwright Martyna Majok to get out pen and paper for sincere thank-you notes to actors Jasai Chase-Owens, Sharlene Cruz, and Austin Smith. While she’s at it, she’ll want to dash off grateful missives to lighting designer Isabella Byrd, sound designer Mikaal Sulaiman, and scenic and costume designer Tom Scutt. Hardly less a deserved message recipient is careful and conjuring director Rebecca Frecknall, who happens to be the associate director of London’s prestigious Almeida Theatre.
This group of hearties is responsible for making Majok’s Sanctuary City into a worthier drama than it otherwise might be. Usually, Majok can be counted on for strong outings (cf. 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winning Cost of Living, for one). Not enough so this time.
Normally dramatically trenchant, Majok seems somewhat caught in the trenches with the two-part, intermissionless Sanctuary City. Through the introductory half—maybe more than half—B (Chase-Owens) and G (Cruz) valiantly enact a series of exchanges during which the adolescents discuss their differences, their status as hopeful United States citizens, and, presumably, fall in love. But not without remaining at odds with each other.
[Read Elysa Gardner’s ★★★★★ review here.]
Throughout these proceedings, Chase-Owens and Cruz prove remarkable in the assurance they exhibit at remembering the all-but identical speeches from chat to chat. They’re also a pair of whizzes at knowing where they’re meant to stand, sit or squat from one brief conversation to the next. Making what must be a challenge look effortless, they’re like musicians following the incrementally repeated and then sneakily shifting notes in a Philip Glass composition.
During this opening stretch, designer Byrd unleashes clusters of explosive lights to keep the charged duologues separated. Designer Scutt’s ropeless boxing ring is expressly useful at underlining the continuously sparring action. For his part, sound designer Sulaiman injects propulsive segments of R&B recordings during a dance—is it a prom B and G attend? Perhaps I should have recognized the tracks—unlisted in the program—but I didn’t. All the same, they allow Chase-Owens and Cruz to demonstrate their mastering of all the right moves. How the torrid two tear up the parquet!
When the second Sanctuary City part gets underway, with three-and-a-half years having passed, the reason why B and G almost never touch through the first part (I only recall one time when they even held hands) comes clear. The instant Byrd’s lights flare again and Scott’s raised square becomes a sparsely furnished apartment, the audience understands B and G are now in one prolonged real-time interaction. (That there is equipment like a mic stand and amplifiers lying about stage left but never used or explained is puzzling, but never mind.)
Further confirming the play’s new reality is something Majok must want to be kept secret. It may be sufficient to say that the thoroughly unexpected and heated development goes a substantial way towards explaining the prevailing platonic B-G relationship. It’s enormously helpful in explaining why B is still reluctant to touch or hold G.
What indisputably comes clear is that at its core, Sanctuary City is a romance. While there’s absolutely nothing wrong about that, the drama lacks the dramatic verve Majok has shown in the past.
By fade-out, it’s evident that Majok intends the work to be about B. When spotted at the play’s outset, he’s caught in perhaps advancing headlights or perhaps facing a train threatening to race over him. At the final dimming of Byrd’s lights, B’s profound uncertainty remains; Majok hasn’t satisfactorily completed his dramatic travels.
Bravos then to the acting team of Chase-Owens and Cruz (and perhaps a mystery guest?) for their full-bodied performances. From scene to scene in the first section and in the lengthier closing sections, the actors raise playwright Majok to the heights she intends. Under Frecknall’s guidance, the cast members bring out the nuances that Majok only indicates. The acting and directorial performances provide the sanctuary in Sanctuary City.
Sanctuary City opened September 21, 2021, at the Lucille Lortel Theatre and runs through October 17. Tickets and information: nytw.org
