Can you imagine having a confrontation with a family member, a co-worker or a neighbor that escalates into a full blown verbal war of words, or a law suit, or a battle with fists? Suddenly civility and politeness fly out the window and the overwhelming desire to win at all costs captures the day.
One moment you are peacefully and delightfully sitting among an array of colorful flowers of all delightful hues, in your own backyard, enjoying the fragrances and vision of joy they create. The next moment you are welcoming new next door neighbors with wine and chocolates. The next you are immersed in a World War III and ready to explode.
You’ve heard of the feuding families of the Hatfields and the McCoys circa the Civil War in West Virginia and Kentucky? Well, there’s a new feud in town, this time in Washington, DC and you’re invited to take one side or the other. Westport Country Playhouse welcomes you to “Native Gardens” by playwright Karen Zacarias, growing out of control until Saturday, March 8. Traditionally gardens are a special place for pleasure and a sense of peace, where one can contemplate nature in all its glory, watching bees pollinate petunias and butterflies flit their wings fancy free.
What happens when new neighbors have vastly different views of appropriate flowering plants and the fences that enclose them, despite Robert Frost’s view that fences make good neighbors? Come meet Frank and Virginia (Adam Heller and Paula Leggett Chase) who have enjoyed their historic neighborhood for years, while Frank has cultivated a special flower garden so he can compete for a much desired horticultural prize, one that keeps eluding him.
Enter new next door neighbors Tania and Pablo (Linedy Genae and Anthony Michael Martinez), she who is quite pregnant and working on a doctorate and he who has joined a law firm and is anxious to make partner. The couples share glasses of wine and good company until Pablo confesses he rashly invited his entire legal firm to a barbecue at their new home in less than a week and Tania tries to renovate their garden and erect a new fence in preparation. Her desire to grow native plants, which Frank sees as nothing more than weeds, and a surveyor’s plot lines that reveal a big discrepancy in who owns what land cause the two couples to verbally and physically come to blows.
As the date of the barbecue inches closer, the not-so-nice neighbors are ready for a full fledged feud. The fact that Frank’s big flower competition is now seriously in question, after all the hard work he has done, does not alter or diminish the tension. Will Frank and Virginia claim Squatter’s rights? Will the law firm be impressed by Tania’s “natural garden”? Can the stately neighborhood withstand the accusations of being racist? How will the arrival of the new baby affect the situation?
JoAnn M. Hunter directs this delightful comedy on a lovely set designed by Anna Louizos. For tickets ($40 and up), call the Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, Westport at 203-227-4177 or online at boxoffice@westportplayhouse.org. Performances are Tuesday to Thursday at 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. Send Westport Country Playhouse a photo of your garden... even if it is under snow.
Come discover whether bees and butterflies will find a home in the gardens in question, creating peace and harmony in nature, or will the conflict create a permanent rift that will be impossible to cultivate without bloodshed.
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