Theater Review: Thought Provoking ‘The Playground’ At Cape Rep

 What do we deserve? And how might that question eventually evolve into “Do good people do bad things?”

 “The Playground” explores this progression thoughtfully, in a steady and engaging pace. 

 The play was written and directed by Jim Dalglish and stars Anna Botsford as Joan. It’s a one-woman play; Botsford is on stage for the entire 110 minutes telling you the story of a playground in New York City’s Central Park. A playground that changes her life. 

 Why, I wondered, are so many actors listed in the program if this is a one-woman show? Dalglish designed and pre-filmed projections of the people in Joan’s life, bringing her story to life in a more vivid and engaging way. One scene is of William, Joan’s husband (Zack Johnson), showing their son (Michael Becrelis) how to cut down the middle of a loop to make two distinct loops and then shows him a “Möbius strip” that he cuts down the middle making it into one big loop instead of two loops.

 “It’s magic,” says Billy. 

 “It’s math,” says his father.

 But a “Möbius strip” is magical in a way because it has only one side and one edge, defying the normal rules of flat objects that have a distinct inside and outside. Much like this play. 

The play draws you into the story of a normal couple who are following a dream to live comfortably sooner than most do if they leave their life on the West Coast so the husband can work at a finance job in New York City. It means long hours for him and that Joan must give up her career as a professor of anthropology (“the same studies as Margaret Mead," she says) and become a stay-at-home mom. 

 “It’s only for a few years,” says William again and again throughout the play as we watch Joan lose herself into a life introduced to her by the women at the playground. 

 Botsford embodies Joan, taking us on a startling journey. At one point during her storytelling, I literally gasped. 

 The addition of the projections gives the audience more than a glimmer of the people Joan is talking about. Along with Johnson and Becrelis, the additional characters are portrayed by Sara Bleything Sneed (Ashley), Shepard Potash (Cyrus), Natalia Molina Marin (Gracia), Janet Geist (Anthropology Professor), Samantha McMahon, Missy Potash and Susanna Creel (Britney #1, #2 and #3) along with Eli Woods, Sawyer Potash, Kristen Winn, Fiona Botsford, Karin Henderson, Kelly Rowen, Emma Engelsen and Luz Adriana Marin. 

The original music (a haunting score) is composed and performed by Eli Woods, with Ian Ryan as the stage manager. It’s a compelling production that will stay with you for hours.