Theatre in Review: Islands of Contentment (The Tank)

	Lipica Shah

As titles go, Islands of Contentment is either a misnomer or dripping with irony, for this collection of brief monologues by Dipti Bramhandkar highlights a cast of the edgy and unfulfilled, most of them stewing in the agony of relationships gone wrong. Since we see them in situ, so to speak, it's easy to imagine them as being under pandemic lockdown, although the script never says so. Then again, we are all much more familiar with frustration than we were a year ago, no?

Islands of Contentment, an online theatre presentation, is divided into two "servings," titled "Brownie" and "Seven Layer Cake." I sampled the latter. The protagonist of "A Nice Guy" finds himself unexpectedly playing second fiddle when the ex-boyfriend, now a famous musician, of his wife (or partner) shows up, hogging the spotlight. The heroine of "Bluebells" meditates on the dating jungle and recounts a night out with a guy who wanted to recreate a moment with his ex. "Put a Ring on It" is a report from a marriage deadened by tragedy. In "It is Written," a visit to a kind of Hindu astrologer forces the speaker to confront her (possibly destined) destructive impulses, especially as they manifest themselves in her relationship with a man named Tom. "I Eat Bacon" begins as a celebration of life's sensual side but ends in a melancholy revelation about the health of the protagonist's wife. In "Funemployment," a financier discovers that life with her similarly employed husband palls when he stops working and is at home underfoot most of the time. Arguably, the happiest of the bunch is the woman in "A Girl's Guide to Self-Pleasure," who starts a beautiful relationship with her vibrator. Well, at least it doesn't talk back.

These vignettes consist of so many dramatic bits and bites rather than the promised seven-layer cake; they're good enough to show off Bramhandkar's obvious skill, but they're a little too cursory to make much impact; often, the pieces end just when they seem to get going. Because everything has to be interactive these days, there's a further wrinkle: As you watch each piece on Zoom, you are sent questions via the chat function. These are weirdly distracting; among other things, I was asked what I like to do on a first date -- really, I can't remember that far back -- and to name a favorite guilty pleasure. (Apparently, my interlocutor has never seen Valley of the Dolls.) It's not just that I don't care for such questions; it's the total distraction factor. More than once, I started to lose the thread of what was happening onscreen. Most of us justifiably become enraged when we see other audience members texting during a play; even in the privacy of one's home, such interruptions aren't welcome.

It also strikes me as a sign of disrespect for the talented company working to bring these characters to life: Nina Davuluri, Kalki Koechlin, Suraj Sharma, Ajay Naidu, Bobby Daniel Rodriguez, Coley Campany, and Lipica Shah. I can't help but wonder how they feel about unseen audience members trading online confidences with strangers while they work. I look forward to seeing them under more propitious circumstances. I don't know who did what, but it would seem the three credited directors -- Arpita Mukherjee, Hannah Wolf, and Rahul Chitella -- are experts at handling actors.

The rest of the package -- including lighting design by Alexandra Vásquez Dheming, production design by Chen-Wei Liao, costume design by Dina El-Aziz, video design by director of photography Kate Ducey, and sound design by Ran Xia -- is solid. The Tank is one of the scrappier companies in New York and it's a good place to check out artists who are going places. There's plenty of that on display here, if in fragmented form.

You can access Islands of Contentment at thetanknyc.org/islandsofcontentment. -- David Barbour