It would be foolish to venture to an off-off-Broadway theatre expecting neat plots and linear narratives. Kate Tarker’s new play, Montag (German for “Monday”), commissioned by the ever-daring Soho Rep, is a bit more refracted than most such experiments, but it’s like a kaleidoscope: fun to peer into.
Instead of “lights up,” it starts with lights off. We see a woman, Faith (Ariana Venturi), holed up in some kind of basement space, its back wall piled with household detritus. She is sitting at a small kitchen table, compulsively smoking in the dark (it’s amazing how a single cigarette can illumine a tiny black-box stage like Soho Rep’s). Another woman, Novella (Nadine Malouf) barrels in, turns on the overhead lamp, and starts aggressively munching and spewing chips. A classic roommate contretemps?
The situation is far more complex – in fact, it’s initially perplexing, and intentionally so. The playwright doles out clues like hoarded breadcrumbs.
“Chips are good for you,” insists the interloper. “It’s the chewing … It’s really good for — blood flow. To your brain. It’s like cardio, basically,”
So one given is quickly established: Novella (Malouf plays her with sensual abandon) is a kook, especially compared to uptight Faith. They seem to be hiding out to survive some sort of disaster – nuclear Armageddon, riots, a pandemic? Tarker is not about to show her hand prematurely, and director Dustin Wills (Wolf Play) deftly teases out the maybes.
The women have been sequestered for seven days. Each has a child, loosely alluded to (we can deduce that they met in a school setting), and each has survived – ongoingly? — a troubled marriage. A bit of a backstory emerges: apparently Faith, who works as a systems analyst at a U.S. military base, sought refuge with Novella some time back and now her husband is threatening to rout her out by force – or perhaps he plans to exert a worse revenge.
The crisis, though inchoate, ramps up. The women manage their fear with intensive exercise routines, dance breaks (in disco finery provided by costumer Montana Levi Blanco), and defensive measures planted about the claustrophobia-inducing set (designed by Lisa Laratta). Novella pries out a knife taped under the table; Faith wields a mean cast-iron skillet.
The arrival of a tall, dark-cloaked stranger bearing a scythe (Jacob Orr, unidentifiable under a mirrored hood) would seem to suggest that the women’s cautionary measures were warranted. Next on the scene is Greg, a protector figure sporting biker gear (including black-leather chaps). That’s heldentenor Dane Suarez singing “A Dream Aria,” a bespoke composition contributed by Daniel Schlosberg. Suarez sings this soothing command (“Stand down, release …”) exquisitely – a good thing, too, because having to listen to a bad opera singer in this tiny space could prove excruciating.
Confused, entranced – maybe both simultaneously? There’s one more treat on view, a coup de theatre the likes of which we haven’t seen since Soho Rep’s Octoroon in 2014.
Welcome back to edgy avant-gardism! This intriguing production signals an all-clear: it’s time to emerge from our own post-pandemic safe rooms.
Montag opened October 23, 2022, at Soho Rep and runs through November 20. Tickets and information: sohorep.org
