“The Roommate” at New Village Arts ~A Bit Of An Oddity

The San Diego premier of “The Roommate” at New Village Arts by Jen Silverman and directed by Samantha Ginn, starring Milena (Sellers) Phillips and Kim Strassburger is a bit of an oddity. If anyone out there has ever had a roommate, as once I did, you might find this duo a tad non- conventional and hardly compatible. But wait! The twists and turns in this  95 minute edgy/dark comedy packs some pretty funky ideas with compatible possibilities.

“I guess everybody wants to start over. Just burn it all down and start over.”

Sharon lives in Iowa and Robyn is escaping….ooops resettling from the Bronx, to of all places…Iowa. Why, you might ask from the Bronx (“Isn’t the Bronx dangerous?”) to Iowa? Good question, although the answer is somewhat perplexing: “I lived in Iowa for three years in grad school…I knew I was going to write about Iowa”. (Silverman)

Her abbreviated approach to write such an essay on what she claims is a much overlooked segment of the population, or in her own words, “I wasn’t seeing roles in which older women who were total badasses”, does resonate truth. My one disagreement with the playwright is the overworked word, ‘older’. Fifty is the new thirty and would that I could, I would revisit it again.  

Sharon (Milena (Sellers) Phillips) and Robyn (Kim Strassburger)  both need a restart. Both are looking for change, both have children (sight unseen) that undervalue their mother roles in their lives and both have secrets that will be revealed over the course of the play.

We first meet up with Sharon and Robyn, Robyn is unloading boxes of her

stuff from her car to Sharon’s front porch (“Is your porch safe?” “Do you lock your doors?”). It is here we find out that Robyn is a vegan, drinks Almond milk, smokes (oops Sharon forgot to ask about that) pot, writes slam poetry, was a potter who made voodoo looking dolls, her grandmother was from Iowa and she’s gay! 

On the other side of the coin, Sharon belongs to a book club or reading group, is a mother, is a retired wife (her husband left her), has a little night -cap now and then as opposed to smoking medicinal herbs a la Robyn’s style. The good news for Sharon is that she is more accepting to try new things than Robyn.

 Moving along, we catch the both of them sharing a joint, practicing a little con job on Sharon’s friends (you’ll have to see the play to get that one) and sharing adult children stories. 

Sharon has more curiosity about Robyn than vice-versa, ergo she learns more about her roommate’s dark past than her roommate is willing to share simply by snooping around Robyn’s ‘things’. 

The story takes some bizarre twists and turns, some believable -some off the wall especially Sharon’s willingness to go along and even embrace some of Robyn’s illegal activities, once she learns of them.

“The play is often funny,” Silverman says, “but don’t think of it as pure comedy. The humor comes from a dark and often lonely place, which keeps Sharon’s escalating choices from feeling like absurdist flourishes.” 

 The good news is that both gals are up to the task. Phillips has the ‘deer in the headlights look most of the time, but with a mischievous smile from ear to ear. Strassburger is cool, calm and collected, always willing to let her mate try something new to break open her closed down self. 

Jen Silverman’s “The Roommate” as directed by Samantha Ginn (making her mainstage directing debut) is now playing through April 23rd.   This set of roommates isn’t quite as cut and dry as my ‘roommate’ experience or as Ginn’s as she reveals in program notes. Ginn, who keeps the pace fast and furious, barely allows some of the reveals time to sink in. 

Kim Strassburger and Milena (Sellers) Phillips

Two that came to mind was how easy it was to scam elders, a shameful crime that leaves them high, dry and broke. And how the use of drugs, so readily available, as used as a conduit for friendship. Seriously, it did not make for a good  ending for Sharon, or so that was the thought as I exited the theatre. 

Both women do their best with the material given them. Both were able to bring out the humor, the unfulfilled dreams, the loneliness, the ‘other’ and the willingness to try to make it work for them. They also push the agenda forward with what the playwright had in mind, to make us think, to add some odd- ball humor and excellent acting and credibility.

“The Golden Girls” they are  not. More like the “Odd Couple”. But even then, it’s less about the comedy, more about the bizarre; the strangeness of it, the discovering of self. It does make one think.

Costumes designed by Katrina Deroche fit in with the time frame of contemporary. Annelise Salazar designed the effective lighting, Christopher Scott Murrillo designed the detailed set and Andrea Moriarty, props.

See you at the theatre.

Enjoy!  

When: 2 p.m. Wednesdays; 7:30 p.m. Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. Through April 23

Where: New Village Arts, 2787 State St., Carlsbad

Tickets: $27-$50

Phone: (760) 433-3245

Photo: Daren Scott

Online: newvillagearts.org