It’s hard to bloom where you’re planted when neighbors are intruding on what is rightfully yours.
One of the best aspects of Arizona Theatre Company’s “Native Gardens” is this statement applies to all characters equally.
The play, currently showing at Herberger Theater Center, centers around a border dispute between Latinx newlyweds and their neighbors, an older white couple.
Karen Zacarias’ hilarious script covers every characters’ unique perspective with equal amounts of respect and amusement, making it so that every member of the audience can find themselves in the different characters.
“I think it’s a really fair script,” Director Jane Jones said. “Nobody gets off the hook. Everybody has a point. Everybody has a moment of righteousness that they own, that espouses truth to their core values.”
Zacarias, a nationally acclaimed Latina playwright, weaves a complex tale of neighborly strife that is every bit as hilarious as it is uncomfortable. This discomfort comes from her occasionally on-the-nose writing, which addresses topics such as walls, border disputes, casual racism and politics.
Yet no matter how much the writing of “Native Gardens” can remind us of our own world, especially in a city as diverse as Phoenix, the play remains pleasantly optimistic, and sometimes even whimsical.
“I knew, immediately upon reading it, that we must produce it here in Arizona,” Artistic Director David Ivers wrote in a letter in the play’s program.
To Jones, who made her ATC debut with the premiere of “Native Gardens,” the hilarity of the play is one of its strongest draws.
“I think the only way we can truly learn as human beings is to admit to our failures,” she said. “That’s a general statement, but I personally find that the times I have had the greatest sprouts of growth was because I challenged myself with something incredibly difficult.”
From its first scene, “Native Gardens” has audiences snorting with laughter. When Tania (Arlene Chico-Lugo) and Pablo (Keith Contreras) Del Valle move into an upper-class neighborhood in Washington, D.C., they are characterized by passion, enthusiasm, and the desire to impress Pablo’s new bosses.
They’re the perfect contrast with neighbors Frank (Bill Geisslinger) and Virginia (Robynn Rodriguez), who are settling into retirement age and accidentally offend the younger couple by asking if they’re Mexican, and speaking extensively about Mexico even after learning Pablo’s from Chile and Tania grew up in the United States.
Tension buzzes from the couples’ first meeting, in which Tania declares her desire to plant a native garden right beside the Butley’s English garden. Frank mentions his hatred of bugs, and the moment Tania mentions how her plants will attract insects, he slaps a bug that landed on him.
As the conversation progresses, both he and Virginia occasionally slap themselves, trying to ward off bugs. Every time Frank or Virginia slaps themselves, it’s so unexpected that it never loses its humor.
Some of the funniest moments in the play come from the misunderstandings that spring up from the two completely different couples. Although the cast is small—including four hilarious extras who work as gardeners and dance to Spanish music during transitions—not once does the story feel confined.
The twelve scenes contain multiple incidences that showcase different dynamics between the characters. Dimension and complexity are woven into the characterization as budding friendships and rivalries are formed between the couples.
One of my favorite moments was when Virginia upset Tania to the point where she shouted out a Spanish curse, and the gardeners all burst out laughing. Later on, Virginia stewed over the indignity and told her husband about it.
With the straight posture of a cadet and the cigarette hanging between her fingers, Rodriguez expressed every ounce of Virginia’s rage through her body language and withering glare.
“What did she say to you?” Frank asked.
After exhaling a puff of smoke that I could smell from the third row, Virginia narrowed her eyes and said, full of indignity, “I don’t know.”
Rodriguez is a scene-stealer as the hard-working engineer Virginia, who struggled with misogyny from her peers throughout her career. She and Geisslinger deliver their lines—many of which are insensitive to their neighbors—with perfect comedic timing and the kind of surefire confidence that only comes with ignorance.
Somehow, even though they often fail to see their neighbors’ perspectives, they are charming enough to come across as still likable, especially the feisty and ladylike Virginia.
Jones said the play “stings with truth, and I think that’s a wonderful thing. We can really laugh at ourselves, whether it’s the Latinx community looking at their issues or their otherness looking at white folk, or the white folk looking at what they consider perhaps an invasion.”
Even before the play begins, the set of “Native Gardens” dazzles. Although the set never shifts, scenic designer Carey Wong created a beautiful design so lovely that not once does the eye ever become bored. Two stately houses stand beside one another: one a clean white home with an old-fashioned garden full of peonies and other English plants, the other a brick house with a looming tree and an empty garden. As the play progresses, the set changes to reflect the Del Valle family’s growing presence, as well as the tensions between the two families.
“It’s one set,” Jones said. “That’s oftentimes unusual, just to have one solid set. It’s an incredibly realistic set. It’s been really fun to watch the artisans at ATC make such a brilliant effort and succeed so marvelously at putting that on stage.”
While watching “Native Gardens,” it’s impossible not to detect the passion that went into the play, from the actors’ flawless comedic timing and the funny musical interludes to the variety of snorts and laughter bubbling from the audience.
Jones hopes that audiences will leave the play not only with a smile on their face but also with a newfound sense of openness towards others.
“I think the play…really holds up a mirror to ourselves. There are a lot of cringe moments in this script where you go, ‘Ooh, God, oh man, that’s really kind of a raunchy point of view!’ and yet you go, ‘Ah, I’ve got to work on that myself,’” she said. “You really see: ‘Oh, wow, I have experienced that prejudice,’ or ‘I have had that point of view.’”
ATC’s performance of “Native Gardens” is a non-stop romp of clever jokes, physical comedy and hilarious on-the-nose jokes that bring uproarious laughter over their familiarity to current topics. The play makes it clear that no matter where you’re from, you can blossom in your current circumstances—as long as you’re willing to work alongside those who are different than you. Fences may make good neighbors, but so do a few shared laughs, and the Herberger Theatre blossomed with its newest comedy.
“Native Gardens” will be at the Herberger until October 21.
For questions, contact the reporter at sosulli2@asu.edu
