Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Martyna Majok’s empathetic, clear-eyed Pulitzer Prize-winning drama COST OF LIVING arrives on Broadway

• By drediman
• October 4, 2022
• No Comments

Last night, Martyna Majok’s 2016 play Cost of Living opened at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre courtesy of Manhattan Theatre Club. The deserving winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the clear-eyed, deeply empathetic work transfers to Broadway after having premiered at Williamstown Theatre Festival and enjoyed a successful subsequent Off-Broadway run (also via MTC). The play tells the parallel stories of two caregivers of the disabled as they navigate their respective struggles in the roles assigned to them by fate (one cares for a legless ex-wife; the other, a rich employer with spastic Cerebral Palsy).

I have vivid memories of seeing the work during its Off-Broadway run. Like in her excellent other plays Ironbound and Sanctuary City, the playwright here is once again invested in telling the stories of those on the fringes of society (e.g., the poor, the uneducated, the undocumented, the disabled, etc.). Although Majok’s plays put her characters through the wringer, there’s no denying of her deep concern for them. In Cost of Living, the playwright’s dialogue is blunt and matter-of-fact, highlighting the unforgiving world within which her characters reside. She plots her play firmly yet patiently, letting her critique of the transactions — both economically and emotionally — that inevitably underlie our lives in this inequitable world manifest itself organically. Despite the intense loneliness and despair faced by her invariably flawed characters, Majok is adamant about the power of human compassion to lift them up.

The play has been directed with clarity and grace Jo Bonney. Although the production has been expanded for its Main Stem outing, her staging thankfully retains the intimacy of her Off-Broadway mounting. Half of the four-person cast have returned to the play from its Off-Broadway days — the portrayals of Gregg Mozgala and Katy Sullivan have only increased in texture and complexity. New to the cast are the caregivers — Kara Walker and David Zayas are exceptional, giving raw, emotionally frayed performances that tug at without manipulating our emotions.

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COST OF LIVING
Broadway, Play
Manhattan Theatre Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
1 hour, 50 minutes (without an intermission)
Through October 30