‘The Bookstore’ – Respite

By Alix Cohen

January 2017: Fifty-something Carey (Janet Zaresh) has always had unerring instinct for what someone should read. There’s a kind of justice to her owning a bookstore after a career in publishing. Hers is the kind of shop under threat of modern extinction where staff is curious, enthusiastic and knowledgeable.

“I am a ghost,” she tells us. “I just don’t know it yet…” Carey has Cancer. Please continue reading. There’s nothing ominous or maudlin about this charming, realistic play. Despite being periodically alerted to passing months, captivation with what goes on relegates death to a back burner till late in dramatization and even then, is deft.

A considerable amount of current theater and film concerns itself with social and political strife, violence, or doomsday predictions. It’s a pleasure to spend time with characters whose lives recognizably interconnect on a here-and-now human level.

The proprietress’s two in staff have become like family. Yale graduate Abby (Arielle Goldman) is a serious literary nerd eight years into authoring her first novel. When she protests Tolkien took eighteen years, Brittany lightly inquires whether that was for a single book or the entire series. (It took eighteen years to complete six books in three volumes of The Lord of the Rings)

“Jonathan Franzen said the only reason Edith Wharton wrote novels was that she was ugly,” Abby insecurely sighs. She’s exceptionally good at the business of the business.

Brittany (Ari Derambakhsh) is self-taught and confident, a cheerful, serial dater who easily meets people, especially men. The young woman tries to get her coworkers onto a romance ap., briefly succeeding with Carey who hasn’t had a close relationship since her three best friends successively died of AIDS. “There were 38 funerals in one year. I quit and found this place.”

Abby had a fiancé whose kink she chanced upon and tried to indulge only to be summarily kicked out. She keeps to John Water’s philosophy, “If you go home with someone who doesn’t have books, don’t fuck him.” Finding few, writing has taken precedence.

Abby and Brittany often compete, sailing erudite literary facts across the room as if ping-pong, terrific fun for anyone who reads. Both are mentored by their boss whose command of the art is casually vast.

Arielle Goldman manifests Abby’s anxiety by emoting with her whole body. Her pauses are effective. Internalization is apparent. As Brittany, Ari Derambakhsh credibly expresses openness and (non Pollyanna) good intentions. She’s grounded, yet not ,as perceived, limited.

One day, a young man tears into the shop after it’s closed, anxiously stationing himself far from the door. Spencer (Quentin Chisholm) is an aspiring actor who has just moved to the city. He’s been gay bashed. The women are solicitous, offering first aid and refuge. He runs off, but returns to thank them and is ‘adopted’ by the shop owner like a low key Auntie Mame.

Quentin Chisholm inhabits Spencer’s innocence and vulnerability. Experience and friendship morph the timid rabbit into a colt testing his limbs. He’s grateful, but begins to take Carey for granted. Chisholm is subtle.

Intermittently, each character speaks directly to us breaking the fourth wall. This doesn’t always work but here arrives seamless and telling. The device is comprised of histories and private thoughts. Jill Nagle’s lighting facilitates.

All characters are sympathetic and believable. That we care is another stand out aspect of Michael Walek’s play. Plot unfolds with grace. It’s difficult to believe this is a first time author. Time passes. Spencer’s bellhop job is halved for an Off Off Broadway role. Literary success comes to one of the principals. Carey grows visibly frail.

Janet Zarish’s portrayal of Carey is likeable; smart, thoughtful, calm, bemused and, at the last, dignified. The actress doesn’t make a false move.

Director William Carden has a nuanced touch. Drama is tamped down to reasonable display and believable response. Pacing is superb as is naturalistic use of the set. The entire cast listens. Carey’s last appearance is imaginative.

Cozy and woody, Jessica Parks’ set design appealingly looks like it comes from another era. All the books (spines) we see are relatively current, none mass market. Gates open and close the shop at the start and finish of the story.
Suzanne Chesney’s Costumes fit characters as if drawn from their closets.

Photos by Hunter Canning
Opening: Arielle Goldman (Abby), Janet Zarish (Carey), Ari Derambakhsh (Brittany)

New Jersey Repertory Company presents
The Bookstore by Michael Walek
Directed by William Carden

59E59 Theaters
Through February 15, 2026
https://www.59e59.org/shows/show-detail/the-bookstore/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23417074076&gclid=CjwKCAiA4KfLBhB0EiwAUY7GAUukP6gD-2AJPuS1fIwNH9zcd_1YuemwtKA7znd2nQX0PkLxXydOIRoCOeQQAvD_BwE