PlayMakers' Yoga Play Comically Portrays American Yogastic Existentialism
This article was first published in Triangle Arts and Entertainment and Triangle Review on 24 February 2022.
PlayMakers Repertory Company's regional premiere of Dipika Guha's Yoga Play is a good place to blow off some steam, particularly if you entertain thoughts of leaving the rat race for a path toward peace and enlightenment. Jan Chambers' set is an innovative combination of rotating scenes, screens, and light shows that make you feel more like you're in a Bollywood night club than a quiet university theater. I actually tried to look up the soundtrack, so I could listen to it on my way home after the show. This is not a play to fall asleep to.
Yoga Play is the PlayMakers debut of director Pirronne Yousefzadeh. Yousefzadeh is a founding member of Maia Directors, a consulting group for artists who present stories from the Middle East and beyond. She is also associate artistic director of Engagement at the Geva Theatre Center and artistic director of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Her experience and background are what make possible Yoga Play's hilariously successful introspection on cultural appropriation.
Yoga Play centers around a female chief executive officer named Joan (played by Julia Gibson), who -- after a previous breakdown, triggered by corporate stress -- is attempting to climb her second mountain by rescuing the sales of yoga apparel giant Jojomon after a fat-shaming scandal instigated by its founder. The play opens on a corporate conference room containing Joan and Jojomon employees Raj (Naren Weiss) and Fred (Sergio Mauritz Ang). Projected on two screens behind them are identical video-call images of cross-dressing Jojomon founder John Dale (Jeffrey Blair Cornell), whose caricature cotton-candy portrayal by Cornell lets the audience know immediately that they're in for a fun ride.
After reluctantly agreeing to accommodate customers whose bodies are larger than the sexualized American stereotype, John informs the three employees that he is taking a hiatus and will not be available by phone, screen, or any other means for several weeks. More scandal ensues.
Joan devises a devious plan to portray the company as authentically enlightened, when -- particularly in the absence of its charismatic creator -- this couldn't be farther from the truth. What ensues is a hilarious introspection on American hypocrisy, racism, and cultural appropriation that is as revelatory for the audience as it is for the characters themselves.
I was disappointed that I didn't get to see Jeffrey Blair Cornell play John Dale in another scene, but this only made it more satisfying when the powerful voice and meaningful statements introducing the audience to the truly authentic "Guruji" turn out to be Cornell's. Meanwhile, Weiss' wide-eyed sincerity in the face of his character's increasingly ludicrous situation reveals to the audience the depth of Raj's contradictions in a manner that brings laughter rather than scorn, an effect that is only enhanced by the comic symmetry provided by Ang's portrayal of the fearful Fred. And Mia Pinero's portrayal of "premier" yoga teacher Romola is a ridiculously accurate representation of the privileged stereotypes who teach or take American yoga classes, particularly in California. Pinero's scenes with Gibson are especially funny and always end with a bang.
Yoga Play presents its theme of yogastic existentialism with a straight forwardness and honesty that could only be written by a woman born in Calcutta and raised in Russia and the U.K., as Dipika Guha was. My hat also goes off to scenic designer Jan Chambers, lighting designer Cecelia Durbin, projection designer Hana Sooyeon Kim, and sound designer Christopher Darbassie: their between-scenes music and kaleidoscope light shows really make this play stand out.
PlayMakers Rep is performing Yoga Play through Sunday, March 13th. It is worth going just to hear Cornell's delivery during Guruji's introductory scene. But you'll want to see the play's conclusion, if only for the reminder to take your dreams seriously and to breathe -- especially when your cell phone is ringing.
