When dialogue is stilted, the responsibility to bring it to life falls to the actors and the director. When that does not successfully happen, the result is Cardinal. The playwright Greg Pierce is commenting on current economic conditions in America like last year’s Pulitzer Prize winning Sweat. In this effort, a small city in upstate New York has an abandoned factory, a declining population and few prospects. Lydia Lensky (Anna Chlumsky) returns home with some big ideas for the mayor. Like other successful tourist destinations around the world, they could paint downtown a single color (got a deal on cardinal red) and the tourists will follow.
While immigrants were a cause of concern to the townspeople of Sweat, here the energy is focused on the Chinese. The tour buses arrive and the imbalance of economic power is on display. Our young mayor (Adam Pally) gets to stomp his feet in a petulant rage while getting entangled with Lydia. A soap opera storyline ensues which is completely unbelievable, exacerbated by a lack of chemistry between the leads (or was that the directorial intent)? The Chinese mogul and his son (Eugene Young, excellent) want to invest more in the town. The bakery owner and her autistic son are not happy with the changes.
Kate Whoriskey directed this play (and also Sweat). Hard to say why this play feels so clumsy and unfocused. The bludgeoning use of the red color of the title? The buildings are painted red, the mayor’s bedsheets are ridiculously red and there is an eye-rolling conversation at the end of the play where Lydia sees a cardinal. Truly. Or maybe the problem is the overstuffed plot venturing from rom-com to something darker and then back again. The topper: crocheted monkeys for sale at the bakery representing a happier time for America’s past. Or is that satire? Cardinal is not the reason to start taking up bird-watching. Or crocheting. Or theater.