Theatre in Review: The Ask (The Wild Project)

	Betsy Aidem, Colleen Litchfield. Photo: Kent Meister

State-of-the-nation plays tend to be sprawling affairs, teeming with characters and ideas. In The Ask, however, Matthew Freeman delivers the compact version, a polite, two-person, set-to, staged over coffee, about a not-for-profit donation, which wonders about the future of American liberalism. The hostess is Greta, a wealthy widow of a certain age, a photographer of note, and a veteran of second-wave feminism. Her guest is Tanner, a young, non-binary, gift planning officer from the American Civil Liberties Union. On the surface, they are natural allies; in reality, they are separated by a profound gulf.

Freeman finds plenty of comedy in the contrast between the rabble-rousers of the '70s and '80s and their politically correct descendants. Noting Tanner's abstemious ways, Greta observes, "Your generation doesn't do vices," adding, "You're all healthy. You glow like Mormons." She also insists, despite protests, that Tanner must be a vegan. Learning that Tanner was a theatre major in college, Greta brings up the recent Merrily We Roll Along revival. "With Daniel Radcliffe?" asks Tanner. "That's the Harry Potter person?" replies Greta, taking a stab. "I won't even ask what you think about J.K. Rowling," she adds. (Good idea.) Discovering that Tanner is married, Greta says, "Things are never fair. Fair is an illusion. Do more than your share and you'll be fine." "That's good advice," says Tanner, subtly signaling that it is, in fact, utter nonsense.

The first sign of deeper discord occurs when Greta recalls first supporting the ACLU during the Skokie incident of 1977 when the American Nazi Party planned a march in a town that was home to hundreds of Holocaust survivors. Greta is a free speech absolutist, warning that rights taken from anyone can be taken from us all. Tanner, worried about hateful words aimed at the defenseless poor and marginalized, isn't so sure. Such exchanges make even more delicate Tanner's task of maintaining a professional manner while eliciting a major donation from Greta.

It won't be easy: The pandemic is fading and Greta, emerging from years of isolation, is not in a conciliatory mood. She feels abandoned by her former contact at the ACLU, who, it seems clear, was let go during a wave of cutbacks. And, enraged by the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, she wants to know what can be done to restore reproductive rights. She suggests impeaching Justices Alito, Thomas, and Kavanaugh for starters and is not impressed by Tanner's boilerplate answer, which involves a slow, painstaking state-by-state approach. Furthermore, Greta, a long-term defender of the Constitution, is distressed by an ACLU newsletter that alludes to it as "a white supremacist document." And she has no use for the locution "pregnant people." Tanner, trying to wriggle out of that one, says, "It's not a zero-sum game. LGBTQ rights, the rights of femme people, queer people, pregnant people, they're connected." "Right there," Greta replies. "You didn't say women. Why didn't you say women?"

In The Ask, Freeman picks at the scab that afflicts today's progressive politics, the conflict between an older generation that prizes individual freedom versus a younger crowd that emphasizes oppressive systems and issues of racial, economic, and gender equity. The abortion ruling -- turning back a signal accomplishment of her lifetime -- has left Greta feeling abandoned in a moment of crisis. Tanner, who mostly sticks to the organization's mission statement, for once pushes back, recalling an incident of harassment in a Walmart bathroom. ("They had been so convinced that someone who looks like me has to be watched like a hawk, lest I pee in the wrong place and destroy the Republic.") Yet Tanner also admits that the far right has been distressingly efficient in achieving its aims: "They were merciless and thought long-term."

In Jessi D. Hill's eminently well-acted production, both points of view are given thorough hearings. Betsy Aidem's feisty, frank Greta cheerfully admits to being "a dinosaur" even as she refuses to give an inch when arguing with Tanner. As always, her timing is faultless: When Tanner admits to living in Bushwick, Aidem needs only the tiniest pause to weaponize the condescension-glazed comment, "I hear it's nice." When Tanner defends her organization's "brand," Greta's tart response ("You're not Maybelline, you're the ACLU!") is delivered with blunt force. Criticizing the ACLU for replacing its mission with a "progressive wish list," she rises to a peak of fury and confusion, adding, "I understand that there are other rights that exist, other groups, but LGBTQ-plus, etc. groups have lots of advocates. They have advocates at the ACLU. Where are our advocates? Where did they go?"

Squaring against an assured veteran like Aidem, Colleen Litchfield's Tanner is eminently tactful and eloquent while subtly signaling their profound discomfort with many of Greta's ideas. (In one telling moment, briefly left alone, they quietly burst into tears; clearly, fundraising can be a high-stress job.) Nevertheless, there's something touching about Tanner's terrier-like determination to find common ground with Greta, especially when wearily admitting, "I have friends who treated voting for Hillary Clinton like something they would only do at gunpoint because [she], I don't know, gave speeches to Goldman Sachs."

The Ask could use more such personal revelations because, in keeping the running time to a taut eighty minutes, Freeman defines his characters largely in terms of their positions. We learn little about Greta's career, marriage, and involvement in the feminist movement. (A phone call with her current lover is a sharp comic cameo, casting a not-entirely flattering light on autumnal romance.) The playwright hints that Tanner has had a rough ride thanks to gender identity issues; learning more about their struggles would do much to illuminate their thinking. At times, The Ask is reminiscent of the recently closed N/A, another entertaining exchange of political views between underwritten characters. The play's mechanics are sometimes a little too visible, especially when Freeman is trying to get each character offstage for a few minutes. Also, since Greta has paused her giving to the ACLU, Tanner's "ask," which involves an upgrade of several hundred percent, seems rather like a stretch. Wouldn't it be better to focus on a more realistic goal?

Nevertheless, this is a stimulating evening about a persistent and troubling contemporary issue, put over by two skilled actors with advanced degrees in well-mannered infighting. The production also looks good: Craig Napoliello's set deftly suggests Greta's wealth and faintly bohemian-chic tastes; Daisy Long's lighting contributes a warmly domestic atmosphere. Nicole Wee's costumes -- highlighting Greta's preference for strong colors versus Tanner's choice of a man's suit and tie -- contribute to the characters' sharply differing profiles. Sound designer Cody Hom efficiently provides a handful of necessary cues.

Despite her oppositional ways, so eager is Greta to strike a compromise that she keeps cutting back her demands. By the play's finale, she is left with making the tiniest request, not to be repeated here. Tanner seems ready to meet her, but one wonders: Is it as simple as that? As The Ask makes blindingly clear, the political left suffers from a compound fracture and, if it isn't allowed to heal, God knows where we will be. --David Barbour