The fifth and final play presented as part of the WP Theater’s Pipeline Festival was written by Leah Nanako Winkler, “a mixed-race Asian Southerner from Japan and Kentucky.” Two Mile Hollow is the Hampton-like residence of a wealthy white family. The play’s inspiration came from a NYC theater company whose season consisted solely of what she and her colleagues deemed “white people by the water” plays. What is that? In the program notes, Ms. Winkler tells us that this familiar genre concerns rich white people sitting in big houses by the water complaining about their mundane problems while spilling family secrets over white wine.
Blythe Donnelly is the matriarch of the family and her step-daughter is Mary. In your mind, conjure a “white people by the water” scenario and cast Blythe Danner and Gwyneth Paltrow in the parts. You will instantly get the gist of this satire. Two Mile Hollow is flat out hilarious. Naturally the family is in decline. The patriarch is a dead Oscar winner whose television actor son brings his Asian personal assistant to the mansion. Another son is a Yale graduate without a job or purpose in life. Both want Daddy’s motorcycle. Mother is a beast in the grandest tradition. The step-daughter likes to imagine life as a bird, instead of a twice divorced failure.
Adding to this flavorful stew is the casting of all non-white actors in the roles. Comedy this broad requires great talent to pull it off. With only two weeks to rehearse, Director Morgan Gould has staged a solidly paced piece filled with plenty of nice touches. As the daughter Mary, Keren Lugo was uproarious, skewering every spoiled, semi-doltish debutante gone sour ever written. The self-loathing son and Yale graduate was played by Sathya Sridharan with screamingly hilarious awkwardness and unforgettable physicality.
This play is having a few premieres around the country this spring. I look forward to a big full production in the future. Two Mile Hollow is a winner.