Off-B'way Review: We Had a World

Joanna Gleason and Andrew Barth Feldman 
in We Had a World.
Credit: Jeremy Daniel

“There is no straight line to tell this story,” says Joshua, the character standing in for the playwright Joshua Harmon in his touching autobiographical work We Had a World on the smaller stage of Manhattan Theater Club’s City Center Off-Broadway space. As the author-narrator says, the narrative of Joshua and his fraught relationship with his grandmother Renee and mother Ellen zig-zags chronologically across three decades, telling and retelling family events from a trio of different perspectives. 

The play is savagely funny and heartbreakingly savage in its compassionate depiction of dysfunction and devotion, skillfully directed by Trip Cullman and acted with depth and tenderness by a dazzling cast of three—charming and chipper Andrew Barth Feldman as the stand-in for the author, endearing and maddening Joanna Gleason as the grandmother, and in a brilliant turn, versatile Jeanine Serralles who manages to make us empathize with the manipulative mother. 

Jeanine Serralles, Andrew Barth Feldman,
and Joanna Gleason in
We Had a World.
Credit: Jeremy Daniel

We begin with a phone conversation between Renee and her grandson Joshua, informing him she has his next play all ready for him. It will be called Battle of the Titans. It will take place in her apartment during Rosh Hashanah when Renee has invited both of her daughters—Joshua’s mother Ellen and Ellen’s estranged sister Susan. “It will be Virginia Woolf, Part II,” Renee promises. We are also informed that 94-year-old Renee has been diagnosed with cancer and this will probably be her last family gathering. From this launching point, Joshua tells us the complicated, love-hate story of his relationships with his mom and grandma. (Susan’s gripe with Ellen is never fully developed in one of the few weaknesses of the script.) At first, Renee comes across as a delightful Auntie Mame-type, treating the pre-teen Joshua to such sophisticated, mature artistic fare as Robert Mapplethorpe photo exhibits, the Broadway revival of The Heiress starring Cherry Jones, and mature movies such Secrets and Lies and Dances With Wolves.

But Ellen interrupts the action, demanding to tell her side of the story. We gradually learn the fun-loving Renee was also a chronic alcoholic. Going further back into past, Ellen paints a frightening picture of her childhood, far different from Joshua’s idyllic recollections of his. Harmon masterfully portrays the varying perspectives of his characters, giving each equal weight and creating a triple-barreled view of the same events. One perfectly-written example details the acquisition of two antique loveseats during a family trip to France, home of the trio’s ancestors (Sidenote: Harmon takes on the French branch of the clan in his Drama Desk Award-winning Prayer for the French Republic.) Renee, Ellen and Joshua convey their versions of the loveseat story as well as their disparate attitudes towards the furniture (Renee and Joshua love them, Ellen hates them.) World careens through recollections with the three actors occasionally playing other roles, staged fluidly by Cullman so that the vignettes flow into each other like streams feeding into a river of memory. 

Andrew Barth Feldman and Jeanine Serralles
in We Had a World.
Credit: Jeremy Daniel

Feldman makes a sturdy narrator, guiding us through the labyrinthine paths of Harmon family history and colorfully registering ambiguous reactions to the two most important women in Joshua’s life. Gleason is effervescent and bubbly in conveying Renee’s sparkling charm, but she also reveals the toxicity in this woman’s brand of champagne. Serralles offers the most complex and detailed performance as the resentful Ellen. Self-described as “a bitch who gets things done,” Ellen takes on the burden of guilt and responsibility while caring for her alcoholic mother. Seralles artfully conveys Ellen’s ambiguous feelings towards her mom and son through telling details and gestures. Watch as she carefully and precisely folds the wrapping paper of two unwanted gifts from Josh, then shoves the presents under the hated loveseat. Whether impatiently shaking a foot, piling pots and pans with rage, or just letting a crooked smile creep across her otherwise frozen face, Seralles lets us know what Ellen is feeling or thinking about her impossible, but beloved family. It’s a memorable performance in one of the top family plays of recent years.

John Lee Beatty’s suggestive set creates the atmosphere of a rehearsal of a work-in-progress, lit with attention to mood by Ben Stanton. 

March 19—May 11. Manhattan Theater Club at NY City Center Stage II, 131 W. 55th St., NYC. Running time: one hour and 50 mins. with no intermission. nycitycenter.org.