Tony Award-winning playwright Richard Greenberg of “Take Me Out” fame returns to South Coast Repertory to debut “The Injured Party.”
The play is a New York-centric, character-driven drama that captures the story of Seth (Reg Rogers) and his sharp-tongued grandmother Maxene (Cynthia Harris) in almost two hours of verbal sparring.
The story is set in New York in 2005, during the time of Christo’s controversial art installation “The Gates.” Several of the characters reminisce about their experiences walking parts of the 23 miles of billowing saffron fabric in Central Park.
Tony Award-nominee Rogers delivers an enthralling performance, frequently contorting his body in visual displays of extreme annoyance and frustration. The play is filled with wit and words, challenging even the most erudite with its vocabulary.
It also challenges the audience with its modern-day philosophy, examining money and property from the perspective of those who do and don’t have them. In one scene, characters reflect on the art of buying things for the purpose of having someone steal them from you.
Good portions of the play are rather light-hearted. But some are a bit morbid. And like all Greenberg works, he likes to push the envelope with subject matter and language, so viewers be prepared. The play is lengthy at an hour and 45 minutes with no intermission.
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Kelly Ryan
