Some stories are so of their moment that they are almost instantly cliche. The Ann Arbor Civic Theater has chosen its latest play for the opposite reason, because they feel that “Curse of the Starving Class” is a timeless story, whose adult themes play out almost entirely in the family kitchen.
“I think this play was ahead of its time in dealing with a lot of things that are important these days. It deals with the questions of the 99% and the 1%, the impossibility of getting out of poverty,” Director Glenn Bugala said. “It deals with the questions of how history is remembered – this idea of manifest destiny, that was harmful to many … fake news, and disinformation.”
Debuting at the Royal Court theater in London in 1977, the Californian farm that the play centers around is rundown and struggling. The father drinks, the daughter is rebellious, the son is hopelessly idealistic, and the mother is seeking to escape her marriage in various ways. Cycles of poverty and debt strain on familial relationships are shot through with murky humor across the three act play, which was made into a movie in 1994.
The unusual thing about the production is that the mother and daughter in the story will actually be played by a mother and daughter. Amy Bogetto-Weinaub, an actress with a long history of local productions, will play Ella, the mother. Special permission had to be obtained to cast her daughter Mia, who is 15, in the role of Emma, due to the intense themes of the story.
“Mia’s mom Amy is playing one of the other characters, and she was thrilled with the idea of playing a family with her real-life daughter,” Suzi Peterson Steward, the president of the theater’s board, said in an email. “But I find that generally kids who audition for our productions have a real strong interest in theatre, and their parents are supportive of their participation in a show and understand the mature nature of some of the themes.”
This is a dark comedy, not a drama. As the theater critic Hilton Als put it in a 2019 New Yorker review of an off-Broadway production of the story, the late playwright Sam Shepherd’s script writing style was one of “matter-of-fact observations about where his characters stand in the world – observations that also tell us so much of the world they inhabit.”
It makes sense that this play was selected as a black box production — a play taking place in a flexible theater, often painted black, in which the audience is very close to the actors and the sets and props are minimal. The set will have a fridge, a stove, the slightest hint of a roof above the actors — but not much else — a deliberate minimalist decision to make it so the important parts of the story are all that there is for you to focus on.
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The show will run at the A2CT Studio Theater, 322 West Ann Street, October 4-13. The Friday and Saturday shows will start at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday shows will begin at 2 p.m. Regular tickets go for $18, seniors for $15 and students can get in for $10 a seat.
Drew Saunders is a freelance business and environmental journalist who grew up just outside of Ann Arbor. He covers local business developments, embraces his foodie side with reviews restaurants, obsesses over Michigan's environmental state, loves movies, and feels spoiled by the music he gets to review for Ann Arbor!
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