One does yoga, one boxes: Robin (Nicole Villamil, left) and Ash (Esco Jouléy, center) are new parents to Wolf (Mitchell Winter, right) in Hansol Jung’s Wolf Play.
There have been plays affirming LGBTQ people’s fitness as parents. There have been plays where child characters are played by puppets, and stories in which a child who feels different identifies as some type of animal. Boxing has been used as a metaphor, and there have been productions with lots of props and scenery that are upended by the final scene—one that comes to mind, Blasted, was staged at Soho Rep, whose new show, Wolf Play, includes all these things.
Although such elements are not innovations in New York City theater, Wolf Play still seems inventive, as a thoughtful script, nimble stagecraft and on-point performances coalesce in a highly theatrical production. The show, which had its world premiere at Oregon’s Artists Rep in 2019, is directed for Soho Rep by alternative-theater habitué Dustin Wills (Bushwick Starr, the Foundry, Jeremy O. Harris’s next project).
Ash (Jouléy, left) and Robin (Villamil) become parents in a most untraditional manner. Photographs by Julieta Cervantes.
While Wolf Play doesn’t break new ground, it certainly wouldn’t be considered conventional. That’s apparent upon entering the theater: Audience members, not the actors, are the ones on an elevated platform, seated—in a mismatched assortment of dining chairs, folding chairs and theater seats—on opposite sides of the floor where the play is performed. Actors make their entrances from a door in the floor. “What if I said I am not what you think you see?” says the first to appear.
Some scenes occur simultaneously, so actors are moving around one another but not interacting, having two different conversations. Overlapping dialogue reaches a fever pitch in a climactic courtroom confrontation, which devolves into shouted malapropisms of legal terms (akin to how a child might understand them): “after David” for affidavit, “gerbil power of a bunny” for durable power of attorney, and so on.
Nicole Villamil as Robin (left) and Mitchell Winter as Wolf.
Wolf Play was written by South Korean-born Hansol Jung and coproduced by Ma-Yi Theater Company, which focuses on Asian American work. A central character is a Korean adoptee, but the play’s subject matter revolves more around LGBTQ families, kids who don’t fit in and the crazy things made possible by the Internet.
They include finding new parents for your 6-year-old son when you no longer feel like giving him the attention and support he needs. That’s how a child heretofore named Peter Jr. ends up in the home of Robin and her nonbinary wife, Ash (who’s a boxer). As Peter Sr., who’d adopted the boy from Korea with his wife, explains:
He’s shy, takes a while to open up…. I keep putting him on a [sports] team, any team, but the team spits him out... It’s been hard with our newborn.... Junior’s been having trouble with our split focus. He was just so unhappy.... It just wasn’t a good fit anymore.
So Peter Sr. posted about the kid’s availability on a chat board, and Robin responded. When he comes to turn over the child, he doesn’t meet Ash until he’s on his way out the door—and is shocked to find out Ash is not Robin’s husband.
There’s something else Peter hasn’t been aware of: Junior is, or believes he is, a wolf. The character, who’s listed as Wolf in the program, is portrayed by a puppet, and the actor controlling the puppet provides a running commentary on the child’s behavior that reinterprets it in wolf terms. For example, when the boy rejects Robin’s offer of a meager snack: “Wolves are able to survive up to two weeks without food if need be.” When he throws a tantrum as Peter is leaving: “Wolves are an extremely adaptable species—but it takes time.” When he wets the bed: “Captive wolves have even been known to urinate in strange places, to confuse potential enemies. The wolf uses scent to mark territory.”
Wolf (Winter, left) and Ash (Jouléy) bond during breakfast.
Mitchell Winter is the endearing performer who acts as wolf, child and puppeteer (Amanda Villalobos designed the bunraku-style puppet; Lake Simons coached Winter in puppeteering). He and his four castmates are all excellent fits for their roles. Nicole Villamil and Esco Jouléy offer rounded, sincerely felt portrayals of Robin and Ash, respectively. Aubie Merrylees brings enough humanity to Peter that he’s not a cartoon villain—the same for Brandon Mendez Homer as Robin’s brother Ryan, who doesn’t warm to Wolf.
It takes committed work by the cast and well-choreographed staging for the show to move along as smoothly as it does. Designs by You-Shin Chen (sets), Barbara Samuels (lighting), Kate Marvin (sound) and Patricia Marjorie (props) are also key in this busy production. Yet all the boxing bells, spilled cereal and shadow puppetry do not obscure the emotions and issues of identity, perspective and compassion at the heart of Wolf Play.
Wolf Play runs through March 20 at Soho Rep (46 Walker St.). Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, with matinees at 3 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are available by calling (646) 586-8982 or visiting sohorep.org.
