Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Eboni Booth’s intensely naturalistic PARIS unsettlingly depicts the desperation of minimum wagers

• By drediman
• January 22, 2020
• No Comments

Jules Latimer and Ann McDonough in Atlantic Theater Company’s production of “Paris” by Eboni Booth at Atlantic Stage 2. Photo by Ahron R. Foster.

Last night, Paris by Eboni Booth (who first came to my attention as an actress in Dance Nation and Fulfillment Center, both exciting new plays) opened Off-Broadway at the bunker-like, subterranean Atlantic Stage 2, courtesy of Atlantic Theater Company. Set in both the stock room and break lounge of a struggling department store in Paris, Vermont, Ms. Booth’s new play lays bare the desperation that has crept into the mindset of minimum wagers. It also explores the subtle but slicing discrimination that still befalls people of color in predominantly white communities.

In style, the play strongly calls to mind the intense – almost defiant – naturalism of Annie Baker’s plays, particularly her Pulitzer Prize-winning drama The Flick. What Ms. Booth also introduces into the mix is the chilly and chilling anxiety that seems to accompany life in our contemporary world, a feeling that was so effectively brought to the fore by another Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Stephen Karam’s The Humans. Additionally, Ms. Booth builds on Samuel D. Hunter’s ongoing and unsettling exploration of the dying lower middle class (the playwright was recently represented in New York by his masterful Greater Clements). Although Paris isn’t quite as established as its aforementioned forebears, the play is nonetheless accomplished, and it’s a fine introduction to an interesting, astute new voice.

Luckily, the play has been given an excellent production by the talented Knud Adams, a director who has proven himself in the past to be finely attuned to subtext and tension. He also brilliantly utilizes the utilitarian Atlantic Stage 2, an ideal venue for the play’s setting. Likewise, Paris could hardly be more ideally cast, led by a disarming and quietly heartbreaking performance by Jules Latimer (who plays one of the token black characters in the show). Each performer brings a convincing world-weariness to their roles, authentically portraying their respective character’s isolation and powerlessness in the dead-end scenario Ms. Booth has placed them in.

RECOMMENDED

PARIS
Off-Broadway, Play
Atlantic Theater Company / Atlantic Stage 2
1 hour, 30 minutes (without an intermission)
Through February 16