By Andrea Simakis | April 5, 2019
CLEVELAND, Ohio — In “Tiny Houses,” now in its world-premiere production at Cleveland Play House, Cath (Kate Eastman) and Bohdi (Peter Hargrave) are searching for authenticity in a world that seems increasingly starved of it.
Though they’ve only been dating only four months, Bohdi has convinced Cath to give up a lucrative job in finance in New York City to relocate to the wide-open spaces of his native Oregon. That’s where he’ll build a 200-square-foot house — atop a trailer, so it can eventually be moved to the piece of land they’re going to buy. With Cath’s dough. Cath is also bankrolling the building materials.
Bohdi, a cash-strapped “life coach and productivity counselor,” has never built a house, tiny or otherwise, but he assures Cath he’s got it covered. “You can learn to do anything on YouTube,” he says. You haven’t spent time in the company of anyone under the age of 40 if you haven’t heard that one. In 2019, expertise is dead. Anyone can become proficient at anything with a Wi-Fi connection, even how to rig up “composting toilets.”
Cath is doubtful. “I promise to live in it, if you actually get it built,” she says. “My blueprints are bulletproof,” boasts Bohdi. “It’s 10 percent how-to and 90 percent why-not? I figure it should take about three months, start to finish.”
A DYI P.T. Barnum, Bohdi is full of … something. But his energy is infectious as he spouts quotes from Thoreau and catchy slogans — “the world gets bigger when you’re living small,” he tells Cath. And, “tiny is happy.” And, “live deliberately.”
Bohdi and Cath embody a generation looking to simplify their lives and right-size their footprint. At least they think that’s what they should want. Watching them try to live up to their high-minded aspirations is the fun of Chelsea Marcantel’s irresistible, tartly sweet romantic comedy about finding a home.
Although lots of new plays claim to capture the moment we are living in RIGHT NOW, few actually really do. Topicality alone — writing about a trend (Tinder!) or a desirable demographic (the millennials!) — isn’t enough to immerse us in the zeitgeist of the earlyish 21st century in any meaningful way. But Marcantel takes on the tiny-house movement and uses it as a vehicle to get inside the heads and hearts of young adults whose dreams and schemes, failings and foibles reveal something about all of us.
Soon, Cath has strapped on a tool belt; so has Ollie (Michael Doherty), one of Bohdi’s college buddies whose backyard they’re using as a construction site. In a running joke, people try to place Ollie’s accent. Is he from across the pond? Down Under? Everyone is too politically polite to ask, another lampoonable aspect of the young and the sensitized.
And here’s another: Ollie makes his living selling haunted dolls on eBay, and it isn’t a gimmick — he truly believes in his poltergeist-friendly product, as he explains in a goofily sincere monologue that was so strangely compelling, I had to Google “haunted dolls” to see if it was a real thing. (Oh, is it.)
Joining their ersatz construction crew, to Cath’s instant dismay, is Jevne (Nandita Shenoy) Bohdi’s quirky first love. As with Ollie, Jevne’s marketable skills are strictly virtual — she’s an online ASMRtist which, loosely translated, means she cures people’s insomnia with her voice and other weird, sensory stimuli. (Feathers are involved.)
They’re real characters, in the loopy sense of the word, but are so well-crafted and well-played by members of the uniformly excellent ensemble, they can’t help but remind us, disturbingly in some cases, of people we know.
And rarely has there been a more versatile group of actors. Over the course of the play, with an assist from a squad of swift, silent production staffers, they build a tiny house onstage, complete with insulation, a roof and a working door. There’s even a cheerful picture window festooned with Christmas lights. The scene shop at Cleveland Play House is one of the theater’s strongest assets, but “Tiny Houses” represents a defining moment for the team.
The build progresses — and stalls — in a series of mesmerizing montages, accompanied by a happy pop score. As the house comes together like a puzzle, assembled piece by piece, we see the passage of time — “Week 1,” “Week 9,” “Week 25” — projected onto walls of the set fashioned by scenic designer Arnulfo Maldonado to look like a forest made of carpet.
Naturally, the novice builders fall behind, and Cath, to Bodhi’s instant dismay, hires Jeremiah (James Holloway), a rugged, easy-on-the-eyes contractor, to kick the project into high gear.
The couple’s dream of living off the grid begins to fade as the gung-ho Bodhi loses interest — in the tiny house and in Cath. The lesson? Building anything — houses or relationships — isn’t all how-to podcasts and shotgunning beers. It takes work and time and effort. Sweat equity.
So does constructing the perfect, timely comedy, as director Laura Kepley, the Cleveland Play House and playwright Chelsea Marcantel have done. This blueprint is bulletproof.
Tiny Houses
What: The Cleveland Play House production of the world premiere play by Chelsea Marcantel. Directed by Laura Kepley.
When: Through Sunday, April 14.
Where: Outcalt Theatre, Playhouse Square, Cleveland.
Tickets: $25–$95; $12 tickets for currently enrolled students under the age of 25 with valid ID. Go to clevelandplayhouse.com or call 216-241-6000.
Approximate running time: 90 minutes without intermission.
