Playwright Joshua Harmon has written a loving ode to his grandmother in the form of his new drama receiving its world premiere in the intimate confines of Manhattan Theatre Club’s Stage II. Filled with the sort of autobiographical details that have the undeniable ring of truth, the decades-spanning We Had a World proves deeply affecting at times and benefits greatly from the superb performances by its trio of actors.
But sometimes hewing too close to the truth produces messy dramatic results. Harmon, whose talents have been amply demonstrated with such works as Significant Other and especially Prayer for the French Republic, freely admits to such limitations when his alter-ego character Joshua (Andrew Barth Feldman) says in one of his many direct addresses to the audience, “There is no straight line to tell this story…it’s confusing.”
It’s also very funny, beginning when Joshua’s grandmother Renee (veteran Joanna Gleason, making a long overdue return to the NYC stage) asks him to write a play about their family, for which she even has a title: “Battle of the Titans.”
[Read Steven Suskin’s ★★★★★ review here.]
“I want you to promise me something,” she adds. “Made it as bitter and vitriolic as possible. It ought to be a real humdinger.”
We Had a World fully satisfies the first request in its vivid depiction of the fraught relationship between Renee and Joshua’s aggrieved mother Ellen (Jeanine Serralles), as well as Ellen’s with her (unseen) sister. But it never quite becomes the humdinger it aspires to be, attempting to pack in so many details about the way Joshua’s grandmother nurtured his artistic ambitions that narrative coherence suffers.
Those details include his grandmother, who was born in Brooklyn as the daughter of immigrants, speaking with an elevated, “pseudo-British accent” and habitually asking obscure questions at museums. She takes Joshua to such adult-oriented films as Dances with Wolves and The English Patient at an inappropriate age, not to mention a Broadway production of Medea (the one starring Diana Rigg) and a Robert Mapplethorpe photo exhibit. “I was only nine,” Joshua remembers about the last experience. “I didn’t yet grasp the concept of fisting.”
We eventually learn that Renee was a lifelong alcoholic who frequently let her daughter and Joshua down, including when she missed his debut acting performance. But her devotion to her grandson is on ample display, and she proves her open-mindedness when learning about his sexuality. When she discovers that he has a new male “friend,” the first question she asks about him is pricelessly funny.
For all its affectionately nostalgic, piquant details, however, the play never quite coheres dramatically. Its episodic, non-linear structure frequently proves confusing, and such tangents as an account of Renee’s solo trip to Paris when she was 35 feel like minor anecdotes barely explored. For every powerful moment— as when Ellen informs us that she had told her mother that if she ever drank in front of her grandson, she would never be able to see him again — there are more that feel like filler. It’s obvious from the beginning how deeply personal the play is for its creator, and much of it, especially the final moments, will resonate with anyone who’s lost someone dear to them, but it’s hard not to wish that Harmon had provided something with more solid dramatic structure and less narration.
The production, however, can’t be faulted, from Trip Cullman’s sensitive direction to John Lee Beatty’s minimal but effective set design (especially those Parisian love seats that figure so prominently in the story) to the deeply felt performances by Feldman, Serralles and especially Gleason.
We Had a World opened March 19, 2025, at City Center Stage II and runs through April 27. Tickets and information: manhattantheatreclub.com
