'Lowcountry' Off-Broadway review — a dark rom-com between wretched lovers
Read our review of Lowcountry off Broadway, a world-premiere play written by Abby Rosebrock and starring Jodi Balfour, Babak Tafti, and Keith Kupferer.
In Abby Rosebrock’s Lowcountry, Bette Midler’s silky, synth-scored cover of “From A Distance” emits a touching, yet mocking, corniness in a scene leading up to the play’s climatic violence. The timing and execution of the diegetic song represents the balance of dark comedy and thriller suspense in Lowcountry, hampered by spurts of stagnancy but held together by naturalistic performances.
Directed by Jo Bonney, Lowcountry poses a provocative premise: a registered sex offender invites a Tinder date over. When David (Babak Tafti, with a slightly suspect Southern twang) cleans his apartment in last-minute prep, his slouchy shoulders and sweat-drenched wife-beater show he's frazzled over his attempted normalcy. The play also augments its thorniness with topical mentions of ICE kidnappings and the “camp in El Salvador” that raise the stakes around David’s life (the script specifies the character as “brown”). David voices displeasure with playing up the upstanding, by-the-bootstraps immigrant at his sex addict recovery sponsor's (Keith Kupferer) insistence.
David is also obligated by his sponsor to avoid sexual contact. But when Jodi Balfour’s Tally, a failed L.A. actress in a rinky-dink polka-dotted dress, arrives in David’s apartment for their date, her awkward seduction slowly tilts the play on its axis. Pivotal to the simmering discomfort beneath the seemingly casual encounter are the outdoor nocturnal sound effects (by John Gromada), which stop dead at dramatic reveals. Heather Gilbert’s lighting design at the apartment window encapsulates how the time flies from daylight to nightfall without feeling too glaring or compressing.
Tally does not so much drunkenly dump as she does gradually deposit her baggage — sometimes too much for the play’s own good — on David’s already ramshackle existence. “Forgive me that I haven't known how to ethically navigate this whole bizarre situation I engineered,” she says. Her prattle crosses into the subject of whether they’re better off disobeying power structures that failed them, even in spite of their serious transgressions, like the events that earned David his registered sex offender status. Her rants about “abolition” and the “carceral state” may be buzzwords to grab for credibility, but they also underpin her resentment toward her South Carolina upbringing and powerlessness.
She perceives David as both an outlet (the kind of man she might have at her whims for gratification) and a source of kinship (also spat out and damaged by the Southern poverty apparatus). Balfour's unpolished yet engrossing body language conveys an insatiable yearning; we suspect early on that Tally covets David in part, or mostly, to reinforce her self-loathing, and her motives are a complex patchwork of rationalization. David finds himself perturbed about possibly being a white woman’s project-cum-fetish, yet Tafti's performance hints at a begrudging intrigue beneath his guardedness. These slow-boiling dynamics build up to a raw sexual act staged, by intimacy coordinator Ann James, as coldly mechanical yet achingly balletic.
The eventual arrival of Kupferer’s character stomps on the proverbial scales of control, hurrying the play into volatility (tight fight direction by Thomas Schall), as if Rosebrock is still calculating its conclusion. Yet, leaving the theatre, the uncertainty of Tally’s and David’s fates, never quite liberated nor exonerated, seems appropriate for them.
Lowcountry summary
In the small “lowcountry” town of Moncks Corner, South Carolina, David is a 30something divorced ex-teacher and registered sex offender residing in an apartment owned by his sponsor. His current aspiration is to work for joint custody of his estranged son. He invites Tally, an L.A. actress he met on Tinder, over for a small date over home-cooked pasta.
He does not intend for the date to be consequential and he’s obligated to report to his sponsor that no sexual contact occurred. However, Tally’s relentless mind games, verbal and sexual, tumble them into uncomfortable psychological territory that threaten the stability David seeks to earn back.
What to expect at Lowcountry
For an intermission-free 90-minutes, Lowcountry contains itself in David’s studio apartment, where a flimsy improvised curtain barely separates the kitchen and living room from David’s bed (set design by Arnulfo Maldonado). Although the play never leaves its interiors, the outdoor cicadas sounds help anchor it in the lowcountry.
There’s one wardrobe detail, by costume designer Sarah Laux, that will protrude in your consciousness past the curtain call: Tally’s basket-coarse platform heel sandals. Their cumbersome display operates as an amusing foil to Balfour’s tall, slender form, but the heels transform from a glaring accessory to an instrument of control.
What audiences are saying about Lowcountry
As of publication, the review aggregator site Show-Score averages a 70% audience approvalm rating for Lowcountry, with theatregoers describing the play with these words: “Great acting, Disturbing, Controversial, Entertaining, Slow.”
- “It dragged along, slowly, barely releasing the necessary details of the situation unfolding in front of us... the details of the plotline were at times confusing and hard to figure out... It was one of the most UNCOMFORTABLE 95 minutes play, due to not only the subject matter of the play, but maybe even more so the disturbing actions.” - Show-Score user Marc 7104
- “Slowly builds to a really tense last bit. More than a few twists keep you guessing.” - Show-Score user JoeyFranko
- "thought the acting was excellent and very natural." - Show-Score user BwayBaby
- “That was good. Unexpected.” - My +1 at the show
Read more audience reviews of Lowcountry on Show-Score.
Who should see Lowcountry
- Followers of prolific performer Jodi Balfour, known for the TV shows The Crown, Ted Lasso, and For All Mankind, would appreciate her unique theatrical talents, likely thanks to her subtle ballet experience, on display.
- Admirers of the Gotham Award-winning Keith Kupferer will find that his intimidating presence brings a stomach-churning suspense for the few minutes he’s on stage.
- For those interested in Abby Rosebrock’s plays, Lowcountry is a third entry in a trilogy series. I finished reading Rosebrock’s Dido of Idaho play five minutes before Lowcountry started, and both plays star female protagonists with fixation on socially unsavory men.
- For those interested in the subject of rehabilitation, Lowcountry addresses the question of rehabilitating registered sex offenders, a shared topic with the play Downstate.
Learn more about Lowcountry off Broadway
It takes patience for the sluggish pacing and stuffy backstory to convert into steam in Lowcountry. Jo Bonney’s direction and naturalism keeps you disoriented in your seat as two wretched Southerners make a connection.
Photo credit: Lowcountry off Broadway. (Photos by Ahron R. Foster)
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