Anyone with siblings is likely to relate to certain feelings expressed in What Became of Us, a new play about a woman, her younger brother and their lifelong relationship.
Anyone whose parents migrated here is likely to find What Became of Us relatable as well, since that’s the starting point of this two-character drama spanning the last 75 years or so.
Premiering on Tuesday at Atlantic Stage 2, What Became of Us presents audiences with a nice story about nice people, which doesn’t sound terribly exciting, does it?
You’d be surprised.
What gives Shayan Lotfi’s new play its distinction – and relevance, too — is the uncommon way he dramatizes a deliberately mundane saga of the siblings identified simply as Q and Z.
The sister, Q, was born in what she calls “The Old Country” and her brother, Z, arrived seven years later after their parents resettled in the United States. Or presumably the United States, because just as these two characters remain nameless, Lotfi’s text does not identify nations or states or towns or world-shaking events.
There’s a good reason for such omissions, and let’s get back to that later.
While their parents progress from struggling street vendors to being newsstand proprietors to owning finally a “corner store,” the siblings develop into contrasting individuals. She evolves into a quiet, kind, overly conscientious woman. He grows willful and adventurous and questions his sexual nature. Sister and brother become estranged as adults. Eventually they reconnect and stay close for the remainder of their modestly contented lives.
The playwright details these everyday lives in a mere 80 minutes by the singular narrative style in which he crafts What Became of Us. Mostly speaking directly to the audience in declarative sentences, Q and Z tell their sides of the story in brief, alternating passages. As story and time unfold seamlessly, it becomes evident the drama’s language is crafted in distinctive patterns.
Alone onstage in the opening segment, as Q recalls family existence in “The Old Country” and describes her parents’ early challenges in “This Country” preceding her brother’s birth, every sentence she speaks begins with the word “they,” as in “They allowed This Country to affect their personalities in different ways; him finding the humor, her accumulating resentments.”
When Z is born and joins Q onstage in the next sequence, the tender memories they share of childhood and adolescence always begin with the word “you,” as in “You stood over me as I slept, putting your finger under my nose to confirm I was still breathing” and “You scolded our father at a checkout line for speaking with such a heavy accent.” These sentence patterns are interspersed occasionally with more conversational exchanges.
During the period when their relationship is broken, the divided siblings begin their remarks with “I,” as in “I discovered I loved biking around the lake while listening to historical biographies on audiobook.” Late in the play, the exchanges between reconciled sister and brother offer another distinctive sentence pattern that affirms their abiding connection.
Although What Became of Us represents smart, even elegant playwriting, a certain emotional coolness arises from the formal nature of the drama’s structure and its repetitive language. This abstract quality is instilled further by the strategically minimal environs and staging of director Jennifer Chang’s apt production. Moving around a virtually empty space designed by Tanya Orellana and delicately lighted by designer Reza Behjat, the performers never look directly at each other until nearly the story’s final moments.
What mitigates the play’s sense of detachment and lends some charm to its familiar story is the anonymity of those blank specifics regarding places of origin and residence. The drama can quietly assume the ethnic characteristics of whoever depicts the characters.
Right now, Q and Z are portrayed by Rosalind Chao and BD Wong, eminent actors of Asian ancestry. In their excellent company, the drama inherently appears to involve a family of Asian heritage. Beginning on June 10, however, the same characters will be played by Shohreh Aghdashloo and Tony Shalhoub, artists of respectively Iranian and Lebanese ancestry.
Without needing to change a single word of the play, the presence of Aghdashloo and Shalhoub in the production likely will suggest their characters share Middle East roots. There is little doubt that Atlantic Theater Company is producing What Became of Us with precisely such a double cast in order to demonstrate its chameleon qualities.
Employing artists of Hispanic, South Asian and other cultural backgrounds in the drama would likewise alter an audience’s perceptions. Heck, “This Country” might just as easily be construed as Germany or England as the United States. By artfully elevating a familiar saga of immigrant families with forceful wordplay, fondly wrapping it in brother and sister ties, and leaving identity markers open, the author provides a gently touching work of universal appeal.
What Became of Us opened June 4, 2024, at Atlantic Stage 2 and runs through June 29. Tickets and information: atlantictheater.org
