‘Pied-à-Terre’ – Grief, Survivor’s Guilt, Unexpected Commonality

By Alix Cohen

Intimate relationship dramas often unwittingly telegraph revelations. Not this one. Here we’re repeatedly blindsided by the unexpected. John Anastasi’s well crafted, original play snookers us into wondering about, but believing narrative while something else entirely is a foot. Character details are superb.

Julia, a successful, forty-something television news anchor (Michelle Serje), enters a Greenwich Village pied-à-terre with a key. On her cell, she’s expressing surprise to learn that “he” owns it. Tension pervades. There have been significant changes since she last saw the place.

As she’s looking around, Katie (Macy McGrail), a nineteen year-old mini-skirted, Elle – from – Legally Blonde – type comes in with her own key. Katie is light-hearted, anticipating a pivotal date with her boyfriend. In fact, she expects him to propose. Both women are shocked and upset at the intrusion of a stranger.

Said boyfriend, Jack (Jordan Allen Bell), the apartment’s owner, is a polished Connecticut lawyer in his late forties. Much to Julia’s surprise, Katie has lived there with him for six months. “He never mentioned you…you know he’s married?”

“Jack says, I’m the microwave, and his wife’s the freezer,” Katie shrugs, undoubtedly having heard this before. The tragedy of losing a daughter to illness, he told her, had severed his spousel connection. Julia bristles. It seems she’s his sister. The young woman is thrilled to finally meet a family member.

Jack rescued Katie short of cash at a grocery check-out line. “It’s cool. I really don’t like guys my age. They’re so… so… infantile. Not like Jack. He knows how to treat a woman. He respects me,” she gushes.

In scene two, we go back to Katie and Jack’s meeting. The play jumps back and forth in time (a little too much) effectively keeping us off balance. Fortunately, projections tell us when we are.

Having come from the ballet, Jack wears a tux; Katie an exposing, midriff top and cut-off short shorts. She’s a hooker and wants to get on with it, but he won’t touch her. He asks about her life (alcoholic foster mother, no father.) Is he a do-gooder? Just separated from a boyfriend (pimp?), she has nowhere to go and accepts his invitation to sleep in the guest room- locking the door.

Back in the ‘present’, Katie tells Julia what’s been going on. Jack appears regularly, paying a great deal for the privilege, the rest of her time- now off the street- is her own.He pushes her into taking her GED, exposes Katie to literature, trains the girl’s vocabulary (masterfully evident in the malaprop -filled script), takes her to museums, concerts, theater.

Because of this, she says,they share all the same interests. Julia is skeptical. Katie periodically rebels/questions her benefactor, but grows to love him.They don’t, she tells Julia, have sex. Jack has given her a credible excuse, but Katie is sure they’ll get past it. Past to present and back, we watch their relationship evolve (‘love the dancing scene) and Julia’s reactions/contributions to the telling.

Eventually Julia divulges a bushel basket of exaggeration, misrepresentation and lies. We learn why Jack and his wife are estranged (an original and painful issue) – though not as much as he’s told Katie; the root of his wrenching regret; a Machiavellian plan; and true identities of the protagonists.

Michelle Serje’s Julia is somewhat stiff, not inappropriate for depicted personality, though off-putting. As the play progresses, the actor gains ground emotionally and theatrically. A well calibrated portrayal.

Nancy McGrail (Katie) is a find, coming clearly across as tough, suspicious, impatient, happy, hopeful, dumbfounded; at times thoroughly irritating or likeable. McGrail carries herself aptly and crumbles from the gut.

Jordan Allen Bell is a weak link. Though Jack struggles with behavior, Bell gives us no glimpse of the extent of driving, inner turmoil.

Director Mitch Poulos offers a production with such commitment, audience is as tricked as Katie- more so. Pacing crackles, the small staging space is well utilized. At one point, all three people, who never, in fact, share space, depict overlapping scenarios. It surprisingly works.

There’s oddly no credit for set design which masterfully configures and decorates the apartment, or costume design which is wonderfully explicit.

Pied-à-terre- A smaller second home, often for convenience—here a metaphor

Photos by Lee Wexler
Opening: Michelle Serje (Julia), Macy McGrail (Katie), Jordan Allen Bell (Jack)

22Q Entertainment presents
Pied-à-Terre by John Anastasi
Directed by Mitch Poulos

Anne L. Bernstein Theater at The Theater Center
210 West 50th Street
Sundays at 5pm; Wednesdays at 2pm