In Paris, store salespeople Wendy (Ann McDonough, left) and Logan (Christopher Dylan White, center) face questioning from Gar (Eddie K. Robinson), who was promoted out of their ranks to supervisor.
Arriving during this primary season like a theatrical rejoinder to all the Democratic hand-wringing over the working class, Paris is an honest portrayal of people who need every dollar they earn. Or it’s a sly commentary on how race figures into a seemingly nonracist environment (i.e., one full of “nice” white people). Or it’s just a well-performed and engaging workplace dramedy. However it’s viewed, this sharply written, superbly acted new play provides theatergoers with a jolt from winter doldrums.
Directed by Knud Adams and produced by Atlantic Theater Company, Paris marks the playwriting debut of Dance Nation actress Eboni Booth. It takes place at Berry’s, a discount department store in the fictional town of Paris, Vt., in 1995. The first lines of the play are not spoken by an actor but heard on an orientation video that a job applicant—a young black woman—is watching. “At Berry’s, we believe it is our duty to celebrate diversity and honor the many voices that contribute to America’s glory,” the video says. “Many years ago, unions had a place in American society, but as more worker-friendly companies like Berry’s emerged, unions became obsolete.” As with Chekhov’s gun, you just know these ideas will reemerge.
Wendy with Maxine (Danielle Skraastad, right) in a rare smiley moment. Photographs by Ahron R. Foster.
The job applicant, Emmie, has a bandaged face and knocked-out tooth—injuries she says she suffered when she slipped on ice outside her other job, at a local bar. But she gets hired at Berry’s after an interview with a manager named Gar. He is also black; all of Emmie’s other new coworkers are white, and at one point or another, they all question why they’ve never met Emmie before when she’s always lived in Paris. Nonetheless, Emmie finds camaraderie with the other Berry’s salespeople, and what transpires among them over a couple of weeks at Christmastime forms the plot of Paris.
It all plays out on a realistic set designed by David Zinn: Berry’s break room on the stage, and its warehouse on a lower level in front of the stage. Furnishings and props, right down to the cheesy Christmas decorations, are just what you might find in such places—everything in the most basic model, the better to minimize employees’ comfort and maximize their workload.
Also true-to-life are the actors’ performances, including Ann McDonough as the kindly but acerbic mother hen of the Berry’s staff; Danielle Skraastad as a hotheaded employee; Christopher Dylan White as a laid-back wannabe rapper; and Eddie K. Robinson as Gar, who’s keeping secrets behind his seemingly upstanding and affable façade. The characters’ interactions, particularly in the two-hander scenes each shares with Emmie, have a natural rhythm and rapport, and the dialogue sounds authentic, rather than quippy and overly intellectual, as in many contemporary plays.
Working on Christmas Eve are Emmie (Jules Latimer, left) and Logan (White).
As Emmie, Jules Latimer seems less at ease in her role than those playing her coworkers, although that could be deliberate: alone at the holidays, struggling to make rent and unable to afford medical care, Emmie herself isn’t at ease. And she’s still adjusting, not only to the new job but to her reduced financial circumstances. Unlike her colleagues, Emmie once found herself on a more promising career track: she was attending college out of state before her mother’s illness forced her to drop out and come home.
She also has to put up with—to use a 2020 word for a 1995 setting—microaggressions. How the white employees assume Emmie and Gar have a special bond, how it slips their mind to invite Emmie over for Christmas even though they know she doesn’t have anywhere else to go, how they don’t recognize the extra difficulty she might face in trying to find a job. These are conveyed in single lines of dialogue, subtle enough that some (white) audience members may think the play doesn’t really have anything to do with race. Ambiguity regarding characters’ feelings and certain plot points also adds texture to the script: Perhaps there is a special bond between Emmie and Gar because of race, or perhaps she just appreciates that he hired her; perhaps falling on ice was not the true cause of Emmie’s injuries. … And there’s another unsolved mystery at the end of the play.
Paris may be unflinching in its depiction of life in low-wage retail hell, but even with Skraastad’s Maxine cursing and complaining in both her first and last moments on stage, its tone is sympathetic more than angry. The cast’s chemistry and lived-in performances make Berry’s, and Paris, feel like a real place, and the personal and socioeconomic themes create a timely, humane drama.
Paris runs through Feb. 16 at Atlantic Stage 2 (330 W. 16th St.). Evening performances are at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; matinees are at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are available by calling (866) 811-4111 or visiting https://atlantictheater.org/production/paris/.
