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Mine
Mine is a new play by Bekah Brunstetter. Annie, a poet with no time for poems, is caught between her wonderful, successful boyfriend and her magnetic, brokeass, aspiring musician, coffee shop co-worker. Set to the addictive, rollicking tunes of acclaimed singer-songwriter Joe Pug's Nation of Heat EP, Mine is a sharp-witted drama exploring love, identity, and the fine line between loving someone and getting what you want.
Pictured: Amelia McClain and Zach Shaffer in a scene from Mine (photo © Samuel Hough)
nytheatre.com review
David Gordon · November 14, 2009
With Mine, Bekah Brunstetter, an up-and-coming playwright with an exciting original voice, delves only partially into the original in discussing the subject of unrequited love.
Well, there's nothing really original about the "hip young girl is coupled with a rich, slightly older man but in love with hip young aspiring musician" plot. But, as she did in Oohrah!, where she gave voice to soldiers returning home from the Iraqi War, Brunstetter gives voice here to a group not yet depicted in much drama: hipsters.
Annie, a slightly bohemian poet, dreams of a life not with her stuffed-shirt boyfriend, but with the hipster musician who sings downer folk rock songs (all of which are taken from Joe Pug's Nation of Heat EP) and is trying to make it in the music business. Naturally, when she finally does get the opportunity to act on her desires, the night of passion is far less than she expected.
The characters are cliched, but are well-performed. Amelia McClain's Annie is so natural that you may feel bad for her. Zach Shaffer takes the role of the dull, monotonous boyfriend a bit too seriously. Watching Lucas Kavner's Sam was like watching some of my own hipster friends, so kudos to him for getting it so right, perhaps the most right out of the trio.
Director Wes Grantom cannot seem to connect the numerous false endings Brunstetter supplies, and midway through the play my mind started to wander. Pug's music, depressing as all get-out and performed by the character Sam, fits the story, but Brunstetter's inclusion of more than just one full song stops the show in its tracks.
I think this play would find more of an audience if it were playing at a theatre in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (which is considered to be "hipster central") rather than at the Sanford Meisner Theatre, across the street from the West Side Highway. This is a play for a young crowd, and, if the small audience that saw the show with me is any indication, it may not find that in Manhattan.
This page updated Saturday, November 21, 2009 9:25 AM
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