“Who the F**k is Sharon?” screams the poster for Keiko Green’s new, weird play “Sharon,” now in its world premiere at Cygnet Theatre.
You may wonder yourself as you watch, and even as you leave the theater two and a half hours later.
“Sharon” starts with “Happy Together” on the sound system, and proceeds to show us a group that is anything but happy. The characters are not rich or even up-and-coming; they are at the other end of the spectrum, scratching for a living and repeatedly showing us how difficult that can be.
Green is an MFA graduate of UCSD’s MFA Playwriting program, for which she previously wrote “Exotic Deadly: Or the MSG Play,” which premiered at the Old Globe Theatre in April. And another play of hers is expected later this year.
The title character (played by Deanna Driscoll) is the mother of a most unhappy son named Jake (Rafael Goldstein), first seen painting great globs of green paint on a corner of a kitchen wall near the workspace where she often claims to be cooking dinner, such as meatballs.
They live in a dilapidated apartment building, where Sharon wears aprons, hums and cooks. Jake works in a store called Jackson’s, hates to talk about “his day,” and often loses his patience, if not his mind, especially when she asks him about his life, which seems to be the wrong word.
Playwright Green plays Tina, who also works at Jackson’s but in the information booth. She finds herself strangely drawn to Jake.
MJ Sieber plays banker Gregg with badly-behaved hair, and Kat Peña plays the mysterious Sabrina.
They drink a lot of vodka shots, eat chicken parmesan (courtesy of Sharon), lick the green paint on the kitchen wall and…..well, that’s enough.
I told you this is a weird play.
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