NEW YORK—Brooke Berman's overtly light-hearted yet covertly pithy comedy, Hunting and Gathering, deals with four young (from 20 to 30-somethings) interconnected New Yorkers seeking homes. In fact, the play's opening sequence projects the facades of twenty of the thirty apartment houses Berman herself lived in in New York City during a relatively short time span.
Then we meet the play's characters. Underneath seeming froth lies more serious stuff: How can lit prof Jesse (Jeremy Shamos), his young student Bess recently become his lover (Mamie Gummer), the ever-anxious Ruth (Keira Naughton), and Astor (Michael Chernus), who ultimately settles on becoming the Man with the Van (he can sleep in it, if need be), beat the rap of succumbing to the pull of conventional, stuffily corporate America, and still be able to afford a place to rest their weary bones?
Ruth has reason to be anxious, for decapitated birds have been discovered on her East Village roof. When she later meets the cocky 20-year-old Bess, the latter attempts to build Ruth's confidence by introducing her to the game of Big Buck Hunter, "shot" at a local bar with orange plastic rifles. Downing plastic bucks will hopefully enable Ruth to discover her own latent powers.
Astor, after drifting for a long time, including couch-surfing, purchases the useful van. He can now help other people move as well as enjoy the protection of a built-in abode. Couch-surfing, that is, flopping for brief periods on other people's sofas, can be fun for awhile, but the couch's owner may decide to return unexpectedly, and then the surfer must find another home—and quickly. There's always Craigslist for, hopefully, a quick fix. It sure keeps the adrenalin flowing, anyway.
When Ruth and Astor later get together Astor is put off by Ruth's newly found aggressiveness—undoubtedly brought about by her recent Buck Hunting successes. Apparently, what works for Bess won't work for Ruth.
Astor is Jesse's half-brother; they have different fathers, which explains their being extremely dissimilar. In fact, when Jesse offers to put Astor up, Astor chooses homelessness. The recently divorced intellectual Jesse can do almost nothing for himself in the real world. Inasmuch as he needs furniture, the take-charge Bess hauls him off to Ikea.
These are all people who need to be their own persons. Taking onerous day jobs is just not in the cards for any but Jesse, although even he lacks a full schedule. In fact, perhaps all the characters are stand-ins for the playwright herself, who has distributed elements here and there within the characters, to illustrate her own need for independence, so that she can continue to do what she needs to do—write plays.
Performances are on the mark. Director Leigh Silverman has extracted every ounce of meaning from the text and keeps things moving brightly. Set designer David Korins deserves high marks for what appear to be a lot of carton boxes set atop the other, outlining the Manhattan skyline, but whose irregularly shaped nooks and crannies open when needed to expose various items for the house (or home), even to a pair of overstuffed chairs which make up a loveseat.
Hunting and Gathering
59E59 Theaters
59 East 59 Street
Tickets: (212) 279-4200 or www.ticketcentral.com
Closes: March 1
Diana Barth writes and publishes New Millennium, an arts newsletter.
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