As the 17-year brood-X cicadas are upon us, I recall distinctively the last time they were here— 2004. I recall it not because I remember the cicadas but because it forced my high school graduation ceremony indoors. In chain-reaction style thinking, I thought of my 11th grade American History teacher, who asked the class a question that garnered no clear answer then and plagues my mind ambiguously now: What makes an event history? Or more accurately, when does a current event stop being current and become history? There were no definitive answers from my classmates or my teacher then and I haven’t come up with a clear answer now. But the question haunted my mind all through watching Best Medicine Rep’s world premiere of Variant Strains (written by John Morogiello and directed by Stan Levin.) As thrilling as it is to be back in the theatre— seeing real performers, live in front of you just feet away on the stage— some productions might not be for everyone at this point in time, and Variant Strains might be that variety if you had any personal experience with the Covid-19 pandemic.
I don’t want to slam John Morogiello’s writing; his style is unique, his dialogue is clever, his formula for getting from point A to point B is effective. Even his sense of how to structure black comedy (or dark comedy, gallows humor, etc., whatever name you want to put on it) is on-point in regards to giving the ‘comedic elements’ weight against the actual progression of the plot. All of these things are done with seasoned experience that shows readily in the overall script. However, the play just feels awkward and inappropriate. I believe that’s because the Covid-19 global pandemic isn’t history; it isn’t even passing current events; it’s live and actively still happening for so many of us that the humor Morogiello was hoping to present feels cold and insensitive, even to those that find entertainment in such darkened veins.
Furthermore, to quote Morogiello, “you’re a conspiracy theorist’s wet dream.” And that’s not an inaccurate statement, considering the overall subject matter of the play, which is basically ‘Big Pharma’ manipulating the Covid-19 variant strains to create a deadlier version of the virus so that they can make billions by providing the cure (to the thing they’ve mutated.) With the amount of disinformation and blatant lies that already steadily infiltrate our daily media (be it social, official, or otherwise) this seems like dangerous territory to tread on; the intention for parody in this current incarnation lingers in the background of the show’s inner workings. Between Stan Levin’s attempt to direct the show with a straightforward edge and the current timing of when the show is being produced, it just ends up being mostly uncomfortable for the audience.
It is very difficult to condemn a production, which does have merit— Morogiello has a firm handle on how to write characters (both the Erin Brownlow and Mitch characters, corporate executives in a high-stakes vaccine ‘Big Pharma’ company read exactly as you’d imagine such real life people to be, not even as a caricature of such), and he does have his ear on the heartbeat of current events. But the dark, humorous turn that Morogiello is hopping will strike chuckles into the audience just doesn’t land, and that’s mostly due to the timing of the production’s debut. People of the world, of the US, and of Gaithersburg are still reeling from the aftermath of the pandemic, many are still even living through the effects, some are still in the thick of it. And the last thing that is going to make them laugh is a greed-driven conspiracy-theory on how Big Pharma is out to perpetuate this virus to save their asses from previous financial bungles.
The other issue with the production as a whole, comes with the disconnect between Morogiello’s writing and Stan Levin’s directing. The overall direction of the play has a ‘straight forward approach.’ Levin directs Rebecca A. Herron to play the strait-laced Inoculaire Executive Erin Brownlow for truth, which creates a jarring and disjointed juxtaposition against the Mitch characters (played by Morogiello), who becomes sort of a parody caricature at times. Morogiello has perhaps missed his calling in the theatre as a song and dance man, because he’s got so much pent-up physicality (perhaps from being trapped inside like the rest of the world for almost a year and a half) that the character is constantly exploding into these awkward jazzy-dance moves, which are one of the only things in the play that gains consistent laughter from the audience. (Seriously, one could easily picture Morogiello as a Harold Hill, except instead of pitching ‘boy bands’ this sales-master is pitching deadly viruses and vaccines.) Morogiello’s character can’t sit still, even at times when stillness feels warranted by the shift in the mood or by the contextual clues of the dialogue. This creates a series of odd moments that just push the audience further into the discomfort zone of “not knowing what to do with this play.” The play has great potential be a total ‘send-up’ a complete high-end parody of ‘Big Pharma’ and the corrupted greed and conspiracies theories that intrinsically accompany that entire concept. But it needs a more over-the-top director and some distance between the Pandemic finally concluding and when it goes on stage.
Rebecca A. Herron gives a facially animated performance and does find a few of the earnest bits of humor that do give the audience cause for genuine laughter. There’s a bit in the opening where both executives have masks on, discuss the notion that they do not need them because they’ve both been fully vaccinated, and they’re standing appropriately apart from one another in the office. They do a 1-2-3 countdown to remove masks, and she keeps hers on her face, earning a well-deserved chuckle from those in the audience; it is an accurate portrayal of how some people still don’t necessarily feel safe without the mask, despite the CDC recommendations, despite the vaccinations, etc. (Ironically enough, Best Medicine Rep is requiring the audience to remain masked, while keeping the two performers a good deal back from the stage.) Herron does a great job combating some of these more awkward moments when certain heights of villainy come flying out of the face of the Mitch character as casually as commentary on the weather; her facial expressions are truly a gift in this production. It’s a difficult production to manage and Herron is doing well and Morogiello is giving it his best shot!
The ending, which I won’t disclose in the interest of not spoiling it, is also problematic because after everything the audience goes through in respect to watching this hugely sensitive, ‘too-soon’ conspiracy theory come to light in an ill-executed attempt at “lightening everyone up with dark humor post pandemic”— the ending feels oddly forced. It feels like the wrong ending. (And there isn’t a better way to say that without coming and saying “and this is how it ends.”) But given the build-up between the Erin and Mitch character, the final moments with Erin alone on stage feel out of place (possibly even more so than doing a show like this before several years post-covid has occurred.) It almost feels like those moments of alone time with the Erin character were intended for the Mitch character had the conclusion of the show gone the other way. It’s just a strange and disquieted ending, on top of an awkward 72 minutes leading up to it.
I wanted to like the performance; we’re all desperate to get back into live theatre. But given how many people have been deeply and personally impacted by this (and Morogiello does point that out— loudly in some of the Erin character’s dialogue, though it comes down the pipe too little too late, in my opinion— it’s almost like by the time we get to that idea, Morogiello may have realized the other messages in the play may have gone two steps too far and now need to be dialed back or reeled in with a moral conscious) Pandemic, by Covid-19, it just feels like this is not the time for the production. If the show were broader, perhaps discussing ‘a global virus’ rather than specifically making it about Covid-19, it would lend a needed sense of anonymity to the subject matter that would put audiences more at ease and enable them to more readily embrace the dark humor contained within the script.
Running Time: Approximately 75 minutes with no intermission
Variant Strains plays through June 27, 2021 with Best Medicine Rep Theatre in their residency of the Lakeforest Mall (green entrance near Ruby Tuesday’s)— 701 Russell Avenue in Gaithersburg, MD. Tickets are available for purchase at the door or in advance online.
