Cold War Choir Practice at Trinity Repertory Company – September 4 – October 5.
It’s 1987 in Syracuse, New York. Michael Jackson dominates the charts. Ronald Reagan is president. And The Cold War, with its threat of nuclear war, is ever-present in American culture. That’s the setting of the latest play at Trinity Rep, called “Cold War Choir Practice,” which made its world premiere last week. It’s part spy drama and part family drama, following the story of a little girl named Meek and her family. The play was written by Ro Reddick and directed by Aileen Wen McGroddy, both of whom graduated from the Brown theater MFA program.
Mareva Lindo and James Baumgartner attended the opening night performance.
Spirit of 1987
James Baumgartner: The pre-show music is a mix of ‘80s party songs with Prince, Lisa Lisa and Cameo, setting a fun mood. The costuming and set design put you right into the ‘80s. But the most impressive part of the set is the rear projection screen. It shows President Reagan on the evening TV news, it has shadow puppets, and it shows action taking place off-stage which expands the feeling of the play beyond the walls of the theater.
Greek Chorus
Mareva Lindo: The play also features a 3 person choir that moves seamlessly between representing various characters in the play and functioning as a classic Greek chorus. Director Aileen Wen McGroddy told us how they brought that to the stage.
Aileen Wen McGroddy: They’re described in the script as this constantly shape-shifting group of women, and the choir is always a choir, but they play different elements over the course of the play. So sometimes they’re the Syracuse chapter of the Seedlings of Peace, this children’s choir that is singing about nuclear war. Sometimes they’re a group of Russian operatives that are talking to our main character, trying to get her to work for them. And sometimes they’re a much more classic choir, like a storytelling kind of Chorus. And I think one of the fun things about this play is watching them shapeshift into all of these different characters, and that one of the things that we did in staging, for example, was that they never use the doors on stage. They’re always slipping through the walls. They’ve come in through the cracks. They appear in the aisles in the theater, and they have this meta-theatrical role, while also being able to step in to be different characters in the play.
Performances
Baumgartner: Lucia Aremu as Meek is wide-eyed and optimistic, even as she prepares her fallout shelter; Taavon Gamble is always a delight to see on the stage and he was wonderful as Clay. Jackie Davis was a clear audience favorite as Puddin’, bringing the laughs from the crowd.
Lindo: I thought it was a great group of actors overall – I found Meek to be a fantastic and super compelling lead, with great writing for her to work with, and I just loved the Greek chorus as a little ensemble of their own.
Baumgartner: There’s drama between brothers that felt a little perfunctory, unmotivated. I wanted to play to really center on Meek even more
Lindo: Agreed – I was left wanting more, which I guess is a good thing.
Relevant today
Baumgartner: “Cold War Choir Practice” captures the spirit of the time with the fear of global nuclear war set against the neon-colored Reagan-era optimism.
Lindo: Here’s how the director put it:
McGroddy: In this play, we get to see this child try to prepare for a world in which a disaster happens. She’s, you know, stocking away water in plastic bottles, and she’s learning about nuclear war, and she’s trying everything she can to have control over these elements that are so big. And everyone in this play is trying to create a future for themselves that feels safer than the present moment, and I think that that’s incredibly relatable right now.
Baumgartner: Let’s not forget that this play is fun! There’s family drama, capitalist cults, speak-and-spell spycraft and the threat of nuclear war, but it has fun original songs and so many laughs.
