Theater: “Plays for the Plague Year” by Susan-Lori Parks
Suzan-Lori Parks’ new “Plays for the Plague Year” (Public Theatre) is the first this reviewer has seen that functions as an historical record of 2020, much as John Dos Passos’ “USA” memorialized the early decades of the 20th century. The good news is, it’s approachable and terrific.
The idea of writing about COVID came to Parks (“Top Dog/Under Dog playwright) as the world was shutting down in March 2020. Parks, portraying herself (and performing her own songs), assures her husband (Greg Keller) and her son (Leland Fowler) that “it will be over in three weeks.” Instead her TV show is put on “hiatus,” her son’s school is closed, and tents for COVID’s early victims are set up in Central Park.
Unfortunately, Parks’ husband catches COVID almost immediately. He is truly flummoxed as to how it happened. “I always masked, and washed my hands while singing ‘Happy Birthday.’ Twice,” he protests. The family soon decamped to a house upstate. Later on, they had to leave their child behind when they began traveling for work again.
The vignettes are not all about Parks and her family, however. Remember New Yorkers’ cheering of the healthcare workers every night at 7? Parks remembers. How about the murders of Brianna Taylor and George Floyd that occurred in early 2020? She weaves that in as well. Everything from the presidential election, to the 1/6 insurrection, to the first vaccination in early 2021 is addressed.
So why see a play about a year you’d rather forget? Parks’ musical numbers are smart, upbeat, and frequently moving; her writing, as always, is funny and first-rate, and while the mask mandates are gone, COVID is still with us. As George Santayana said in 1905, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Come to Joe’s Pub at the Public and I suspect you’ll agree.