Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Ebru Nihan Celkan’s fractured two-hander WILL YOU COME WITH ME? gets lost in translation

• By drediman
• May 18, 2022
• No Comments

Earlier this week, I trekked to Gowanus in Brooklyn to catch the opening night performance of Turkish playwright Ebru Nihan Celkan’s Will You Come with Me? at MITU580. The new play, which is being produced by PlayCo, tells the story of Umut and Janina, a young lesbian couple who meet in Turkey during the Gezi Park protests. Set against this backdrop of civil unrest, the work chronicles their budding romance between 2013 and 2018 in various locales as they attempt to navigate the challenges of a fraught long-distance relationship (Umut lives in Turkey, Janina in Germany) vis-à-vis ongoing political engagement.

Ms. Celkan’s bittersweet two-hander is written in an intentionally fractured manner. Much of the play takes the form of unilateral correspondences delivered well into the relationship, which may leave some audience members lost, at least initially. Additionally, the playwright unfolds the piece in a series of chronologically scattered scenes, further tasking the audience to piece things together for themselves. Although there are moments of beauty, much of the play falls flat, as if something were lost in translation (the English translation is by Kate Ferguson). Much of Will You Come with Me? is comprised of poetic musings that are more distancing and clunky than they are evocative and urgent. Most importantly, it isn’t clear what drives the relationship (especially one as committed as this one) nor the schism that eventually conspires to drive them apart. The play comes to affecting life during the couple’s few scenes in the same physical space – one in Berlin (where Janina lives), another in Turkey late in their relationship, and, most potently, the depiction of their first chance encounter in Gezi Park.

Will You Come with Me? has been directed by Keenan Tyler Oliphant, whose staging unfortunately does little to clarify the central relationship nor bring specificity to the Turkish uprisings. The acting is earnest and sincere – Layla Khoshnoudi is restless and viscerally engaged as Umut, and Maribel Martinez is quietly resolute. Their contrasting temperaments compliment each other well. PlayCo’s multimedia production is technically savvy, particularly with respect to its ample use of video projections courtesy of designers Stefania Bulbarella and Dee Lamar Mills (kudos also to Reza Behjat and Avi Amon, respectively, for their bold lighting and sound).

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WILL YOU COME WITH ME?
Off-Broadway, Play
PlayCo at Mitu580
1 hour, 20 minutes
Through June 5