(Cover Photo: Stephanie Gould and Lewis D. Wheeler in a scene from the Martyna Majok's "COST OF LIVING" now playing at SpeakEasy Stage Company in Boston, MA. until March 30, 2024 . Photo credit Nile Scott Studios)

By Kevin T. Baldwin

METRMAG Reviewer

# 774-242-6724 

 
“Cuz, y’know, you married a person. And a person’s gonna be a person even if they’re married. That’s a lesson. That’s a lesson for yer LIFE right there.” 

                                - ("Eddie") / Martyna Majok

SpeakEasy Stage Company

Presents Martyna Majok's 

"COST OF LIVING"

Winner! 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama! 

Written by Martyna Majok

Directed by Alex Lonati

Cast Includes: Gina Fonseca as "Jess," Stephanie Gould as "Ani," Sean Leviashvili as "John," and Lewis D. Wheeler as "Eddie."

Additional Creative Team:

Set Designer - Janie E. Howland; Lighting Designer - Amanda E. Fallon; Costume Designer - Chelsea Kerl; Sound Designer - Anna Drummond; Props Designer - Sarabeth Spector; Intimacy Choreographer - Jesse Hinson; Stage Manager - Ari Welch; Assistant Stage Manager - Ross Gray

Performances:

March 8, 2024 through March 30, 2024 

(Contact Box Office for Exact Times)  

Calderwood / BCA, 527 Tremont Street, Boston MA 02116 

TICKETS:

Contact the Box Office # 617-933-8600 or visit  www.speakeasystage.com 

COVID 19 PROTOCOLS

Contact Venue for Most Updated COVID-19 Safety Protocols and Information.

SpeakEasy Stage Company has staged a captivating look both caring and caregiving in "COST OF LIVING" which will evoke many emotions from its audience as it unfolds.

Under a beautifully collaged set comprised mostly of windows, we venture into the intimate surroundings where the events of two parallel stories get conveyed to us.

The overall production is staged with great care and a superb sensitivity by director Alex Lonati.

"COST OF LIVING" premiered in 2016 at the Williamstown Theatre Festival before moving to Off-Broadway in 2017. 

The play would go on to win the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama as well as two Lucille Lortel Awards, including Outstanding Play.

(Photo: Gina Fonseca and Sean Leviashvili in a scene from Martyna Majok's "COST OF LIVING" now playing at SpeakEasy Stage Company in Boston, MA. until March 30, 2024 . Photo credit Nile Scott Studios)

It is autumn in New Jersey as the play begins. 

The ensemble of performances are thought provoking, heart wrenching to watch at times but, collectively, are exceptionally delivered.

Martyna Majok's play will have people considering the occasional fine line between assumption and fact, perception and misperception, trust and distrust, limitation and unboundedness, allegiance and betrayal...all seen in the relationships of these two sets of "couples."

Actually, the relationship of one of the "couples" is less romantic and more that of employer and caregiver as we meet John (Sean Leviashvili), a brilliant PhD student with cerebral palsy, who has employed Jess (Gina Fonseca), a first-generation Princeton graduate who has fallen on desperate times, as his new aide.

Leviashvili gives the impression of his character that, cerebral palsy aside, John is an intelligent, powerful presence.

Yet, that presence also seems to bring with it, part and parcel, a high degree of arrogance and some occasionally elitist behavior.  

(Photo: Lewis D. Wheeler and Stephanie Gould in a scene from the Martyna Majok's "COST OF LIVING" now playing at SpeakEasy Stage Company in Boston, MA. until March 30, 2024 . Photo credit Nile Scott Studios)

At first, there is a mutual distrust between John and Jess (with the latter exceptionally played out by Fonseca) but it becomes clear quite quickly that John is in need of someone who can provide him with immediate assistance, while Jess is in need of...well, many things, as we eventually discover.

Fonseca gives a commendable, layered performance as Jess., who comes across as forceful, confident, aggressive, at times - a true fighter. 

Only, John, and we, never quite know what it is Jess is fighting against...or fighting for. 

The arrangement is agreed upon between the two but it quickly feels as though the biggest obstacle each will need to overcome in order to make this arrangement succeed is agreeing to be less skeptical of the other. 

We also meet unemployed truck driver Eddie (Lewis D. Wheeler), a recovering alcoholic, who offers to become the caregiver for his estranged wife, Ani (Stephanie Gould).

Ani is quadriplegic, resulting from a car crash which caused a severe incomplete spinal cord injury.  

While Eddie has a new girlfriend in his life, he feels a strong pull to care for his former spouse in Ani's time of need, although Ani insists she wants nothing to do with Eddie and certainly does not require his pity.

The relationships between these two sets of characters is awkward but for very different reasons.

(Photo: Sean Leviashvili and Gina Fonseca in a scene from Martyna Majok's "COST OF LIVING" now playing at SpeakEasy Stage Company in Boston, MA. until March 30, 2024 . Photo credit Nile Scott Studios)

John and Jess are only just starting to get to know one another while Eddie and Ani come across as old souls seemingly connected by something more - something greater - or something that at least goes far beyond her particular set of circumstances.  

In a perfect world, an outside observer might look at Eddie and Ani before Ani's accident and conclude they should not be together, perhaps not even in the same Jersey area code. Oil and water would have a better chance at mixing well together. 

Yet, as many folks know, this is far from a perfect world.

Gould is exceptionally funny as the guttural, acerbic, cantankerous, foul-mouthed Ani but she also displays a softer, more vulnerable side as Ani who soon relents to Eddie's offers of assistance.

As Eddie, Wheeler is 100 percent invested in his character and, while Eddie is in no way obligated to take on the responsibility of caring for Ani, he seems to convey he has no choice because he has never stopped caring for Ani.

(Photo: Stephanie Gould and Lewis D. Wheeler in a scene from the Martyna Majok's "COST OF LIVING" now playing at SpeakEasy Stage Company in Boston, MA. until March 30, 2024 . Photo credit Nile Scott Studios)

There are some awkwardly long moments of silence, especially as Jess bathes John and no dialogue is spoken between the two. Similarly, this occurs as Eddie bathes Ani in a tub.

While some might find the above difficult to watch, others may discover these scenes actually speak volumes as to the near-symbiotic relationship required between the participants.

This is a powerful production made even more powerful by its moments of silence as these characters reflect on what it is that keeps driving them forward in the face of great adversity.

"COST OF LIVING" continues in Boston until March 30th and is an emotionally charged drama that will have people talking about it long after leaving the theatre.

Coming up at SpeakEasy Stage Company in will be the Tony Award-winning musical, "A STRANGE LOOP" by Michael R. Jackson beginning April 26th, 2024.

For tickets and further information, contact the Box Office at # 617-933-8600 or visit www.speakeasystage.com.

Approximately one hour, 45 minutes with no intermission 

Kevin T. Baldwin is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) 

@MetrmagReviews

@Theatre_Critics 

ABOUT THE SHOW

Winner! 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama!  

In this wry and quietly observed play, Polish-born playwright Martyna Majok interweaves the stories of four lonely souls to examine the forces that bring people together and the ways we all need each other.  

Eddie, an unemployed truck driver, and his estranged ex-wife, Ani, find themselves unexpectedly reunited after she suffers a devastating accident. 

And John, a brilliant PhD student with cerebral palsy, hires Jess, a first-generation Princeton graduate who has fallen on desperate times, as his new aide. 

Together these powerful stories comment on the complexity of caring and being cared for, and “the various tendernesses of simply being human.” (The Daily Beast) 

ABOUT SPEAKEASY STAGE COMPANY

SPEAKEASY STAGE COMPANY is a non-profit theatre company located in the South End of Boston. SPEAKEASY STAGE COMPANY was named the Pavilion Resident Theater for the Boston Center for the Arts in 2007 and produces 28 weeks of new plays and musicals each season at the Nancy and Ed Roberts Studio Theater in the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts.

speakeasystage.com