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Miles for Mary by The Mad Ones at Playwrights Horizons

Miles for Mary by The Mad Ones, seen at the Bushwick Starr in 2016, has been remounted at Playwrights Horizons as part of the non-profit's Redux Series. The play, directed by the prolific and one of the best in the game, Lia Neugerbauer (surprisingly making her Playwrights Horizons debut), focuses on a committee of teachers at an Ohio high school in 1988 as they plan the annual Miles for Mary telethon. Mary was a promising student athlete at the school who tragically died in a car accident. The event raises money for a college scholarship for other promising athletes at the school.

Anyone who has been on a committee of some kind will be able to relate to many of the proceedings at hand: the arduous decision making process, not being able to get your voice/opinions heard, and having to accept you can't always get what you want. Although the events of the play feel familiar and honest, they're honestly not that compelling.

According to The Mad Ones' website, the group is dedicated to "creating visceral, ensemble-driven, highly detailed theatrical experiences that examine and illuminate American nostalgia." But I think the emphasis here is on the nostalgia. The costumes scream 1988; monochromatic track suits, acid-washed jeans, and shoulder pads, my God, the shoulder pads! And if you still weren't sure what decade the play was set, well, take a look around the stage. There's big, outdated computers and phones and exercise bikes. There's an on-going gag by an unreliable speaker phone (one of the teachers, Brenda, has an unexplained medical issue that prevents her from physically being present at the meetings), and there's vintage Hawaiian punch cans, talk of records and cassettes, of Garfield and Otie, and well, just the idea of hosting a telethon is completely outdated. You will get a kick out of the nostalgia factor, you may even think it's funny, because people like the familiar. They like to be in on the joke.

But what does this all amount to really?

The stakes, for the most part, are so low they're non-existent. These character bicker, they argue, they attempt to make decisions while they get in touch with their feelings, and yes, they are patronizing and condescending to each other. But they're never portrayed as unlikable people. In fact, they are, for the most part, people I'd want to spend time with.

I mean, I guess. Because I don't really know much about these people.

We know tiny details. Two of the teachers, Ken and Julia, are married, and through passive-aggressive gestures, it's clear things aren't all sunshine and roses for them. Dave, the group's leader, is married with two daughters. Sandra, who, with the use of context clues, I figured to be the track coach, might have a drinking problem (she continues to refill her punch cup during the Christmas party scene) and most definitely is not in a relationship. But none of that is developed. There's also the stereotypical puppy of a dumb jock, Roddy, the school's health teacher. But these tiny, cliched details do not a character make. There's no layers to them. Nothing is revealed over the course of 1:45. The characters are exactly the same at the beginning as they are at the end. If there is any change to them, it's internal, and we aren't privy to it at all. Sure, these people are a bit wounded but nothing is life-changing. The married couple, after all the shenanigans that have occurred, still appear to be married at the end. Julia is inexplicably absent during the final meeting but look! Brenda is finally here! And she appears to be absolutely fine. She's overcome...whatever it is she had.

The play's scenes  move from committee meeting to committee meeting, dealing with tedious details like the telethon's theme, lineup, and how to answer the phone during the event. Yes, the minutia is well-crafted but that's all it is. Minutia. The play feels like a series of sketches because there's no rising action, no climax. Even Ken's temper tantrum in the long second-to-last scene amounts to nothing. Sure the characters explore how to be "socially correct" towards each other but in the end, relationships aren't broken. The telethon is canceled due to extreme winter weather, and the last scene has the group gathering to begin planning for the 1989-1990 event. They might be licking the very minor wounds they received but there's no growth. I could see if the actions of this play lead to all of the committee members quitting, or the telethon being called off but nope. It's business as usual. Nothing irreparable has occurred.

So what are we to get out of this other than the nostalgia factor? The whole thing feels insignificant because there's nothing to bite off. The concept is stretched too thin, the whole thing goes on too long. If you want to do mundane and minutia and pull it off brilliantly, please see Annie Baker's The Flick. 







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