BROOKLYN LAUNDRY

REVIEW BY CELIA IPIOTIS

Twists of fate can upend most folks and in particular someone like Fran (Cecily Strong), a single person living alone and apart from her family in John Patrick Shanley’s Brooklyn Laundry at the Manhattan Theatre Club.

In a chance encounter, Fran meets a garrulous man, Owen (David Zayas) at the laundry. He owns the laundry plus two more. Cranky and distracted over the absence of joy in her life, Fran is annoyed when he rightly dubs her gloomy. Despite her dowdy demeanor (costumes by Suzy Benzinger) and grating voice, he invites her out–in part because she reminds him of his ex-fiancée.  

Soon Fran learns Owen Injured his back  in a car accident. And although his personal injury money finances his businesses,  Owen confesses his back never healed thus interrupting his sex life. Despite that questionable bit of information, they go on a date that’s full of whimsy and wit.  Both are a bit skittish due to unrequited relationships and both are wary of being ghosted. Yet, despite the obstacles, they find unlikely pleasure in each other and their courtship builds on believable chemistry until Fran’s family intercepts the storyline.

When Fran learns of her sister’s worsening health condition, she leaves town without telling Owen. Living in a trailer park in Pennsylvania, Trish (Florencia Lozano) is the opposite of Fran. Loopy and funny, Trish can’t kick her own habit of loving, marrying, divorcing and marrying her druggie husband.  

Restricted to her bed, Trish asks Fran to adopt her young son. Reeling from the realization that her sister will die, Fran is doubly shocked when she learns her other, very pragmatic sister,  Susie (Andrea Syglowski) is dying of pancreatic cancer and also wants Fran to adopt her children. In no time, she’s confronting a twin barrel tragedy.

This emotional whiplash unhinges her relationship with Owen. Weak on interpersonal communication, Fran finally catches her breath and catches Owen at the laundry, only  he’s in no mood to talk. Since children didn’t figure into either one of their futures, when Fran tells Owen she’s now a mother of three, he is  gobsmacked. 

Owen’s absence in scenes causes the play to lose some of its tautness–perhaps because of Zayas’ and Strong’s theater dynamics. Brooklyn Laundry peers into conflicted interpersonal situations resolved through trust, patience and luck.

EYE ON THE ARTS, NY — Celia Ipiotis