Jeanine Serrales, Andrew Barth Feldman, Joanna Gleason. (Photo: Jeremy Daniel)

We Had a World

By David Schultz

Playwright Joshua Harmon's new autobiographical play, We Had A World, is densely packed with emotional family drama in a nonlinear structure. Taking place from 1988 to around 2018, our narrator Joshua (Andrew Barth Feldman) gives the viewer a first-row seat to his fractured Upper West Side Jewish family.

Joshua's grandmother, Renee (Joanna Gleason), riddled with cancer, has a request for her grandson, who has just started a career of writing and producing plays professionally. She wants him to write a personal play about their family and requests that he "make it as bitter and vitriolic as possible." Having knowledge of this strange idea, Joshua conjures the full 30-year history of his family.

Grandmother Renee is a free spirit with a decidedly "Auntie Mame" vibe. She takes her 10 year old grandson to adult rated films such as "Dances with Wolves" and "The English Patient". Occasional eccentric side trips include exhibits of Robert Mapplethorpe's art and theater jaunts to see the Broadway revival of Medea with Diana Rigg.

This decidedly quirky relationship spurs Joshua to see and experience the world in a different light from most kids his age. Seeing Medea at that  tender age supposedly gave the real Joshua the spark to write and create works of his own in later years.

Jeanine Serrales, Andrew Barth Feldman. (Photo: Jeremy Danie)l

Rounding out the characters, Ellen (Jeanine Serralles), Joshua's mother, has myriad issues with her son and mother. As We Had A World moves forward and backward in time, it reveals the stresses and complexity of this tightly knit family and its underlying trauma at the same time that the episodic rhythm of the play gives the work a nostalgic, wistful feeling.

Renee's hidden alcoholic behavior reveals anger and resentment between daughter and mother. Ellen is tightly wound up and sees her son drifting away from her; Renee's free spirit and joy of life stand in stark contrast to Ellen's busy life as a lawyer. Her (unseen) sister Susan's hazy, unformed backstory also causes more family emotional stress. Late in the play, Joshua reveals that he has a male 'friend," which is a non-issue for his open-minded grandmother.

Andrew Barth Feldman, Joanna Gleason. (Photo: Jeremy Daniel)

The three-member cast is impeccable. Miss Gleason, who has been not been seen on stage for over a decade, brings her considerable charm to bear and delivers her dialogue with delightful verve. Miss Serralles brings out all the inner anger and resentment her character feels toward both mother and son with an intensely personal reading. Mr. Feldman displays his joie de vivre when he gallivants with his grandmother, yet shows a darker, more melancholy side at the loss of his grandmother and the gradual change in his personal history.

Director Trip Cullman has a full grasp on this playwright's work, and draws out the drama and humor inherent in this play. Fabled set designer John Lee Beatty creates a unobtrusive, minimalist set on the postage-stamp-size stage at NY City Center II. Lighting design by Ben Stanton hits all the right visual notes; ditto for costume designer Kaye Voyce 's quirky era couture.

The density, yet lightness of author Joshua Harmon's tone gives this new work by the author of A Prayer for the French Republic unexpected gravitas.

We Had A World

New York City Center Stage II

131 West 55^th Street  

Through May 11

212 581-1212

Tickets: https://www.nycitycenter.org/pdps/2024-2025/we-had-a-world/