FringeNYC 2013: Sheeple

Review by David Fuller · August 10, 2013

Sheeple by Mara Wilson is a comedy-drama about high school angst set on a back porch of a southern California home in the summer of 2005. It’s just before senior year and we are at the home of Nick, where we find him and his best friend Alberto, hanging out with not much to do except ponder what life will be like once they graduate. Alberto says he is thinking about enlisting because it’s the only way he can see that he can afford college. Nick, an incipient pacifist, is totally against that, but he has more important things to think about, namely, Soo-Min and their relationship. Soo-Min, of Korean-American heritage, is Nick’s first love, his first intimate experience, and his catalyst for confusion and frustration. Into this mix are Russ, an anarchistic conspiracy theorist who is the group’s pot connection, and Seth, Nick’s older brother who has already graduated and lives elsewhere, but has come by to do his laundry.

What happens during this fairly lightweight piece is certainly predictable: handsome older brother meets younger brother’s attractive, sexually hungry and non-monogamous girl, gets left alone with her for an extended period of time, and, well, figure it out. The arc of the plot seems to be a slice of life during which a young man grows up a bit under circumstances that are less meaningful to the other participants.

There is not a lot of action in the play, which is fine for the type it is, really a series of conversations. Wilson writes realistic dialogue that seems true to her characters and shows some nice wit. The acting is uniformly good: Chris Cafero as Seth, Fernando Gonzalez as Alberto, Cecilia Kim as Soo-Min, Benj Mirman as Nick and William Vaughn as Russ all give honest, believable interpretations. My one big caveat however is that it is often extremely difficult to hear them. [This was a hot topic at intermission and having personally seen other shows in the space that day I can attest to the fact that the problem was not the theater.] Were these actors trained for the realism of the camera without learning the dynamics of stage performance? Such an approach would work in a large theatre where you are miked, but just doesn’t cut it in a small Indie theater like the Kraine.

Oh well, apart from the volume issue, director Max Reuben’s staging is clear and concise and so natural it just seems real. The limited violence by fight director Kirin McCrory is perfect and startling in a good way. Gary Reuben’s set and Robert Wuss’lights work well together in simple, effective ways.

Sheeple feels like one play by a woman capable of more significant works. She shows a great ear for dialogue and an eye for drawing believable characters. Now we need something with more dramaturgical complexity – a few dramatic reversals and plot twists. But seeing the work of a young American woman playwright with obvious potential, isn’t that what FringeNYC is all about?