Racism, sexism, ageism, and a fence add up to one of the year’s funniest—and most button-pushing—comedies in Karen Zacarías’s Native Gardens, now getting its most star-studded production to date at the Pasadena Playhouse.

 Meet engineer Frank and his defense contractor wife Virginia (Bruce Davison and Frances Fisher), decades-long residents of one of Washington D.C.’s poshest neighborhoods, and their brand new next-door neighbors, rising young corporate lawyer Pablo (Christian Barillas) and his pregnant Ph.D-candidate wife Tania (Jessica Meraz), whose arrival signals the long-awaited end of next-door renters, saints be praised.

The WASP-ish Republicans stage right and their considerably more progressive Latino neighbors stage left may come from opposite sides of the political-social-ethnic fence, but at least for the first few hours after the two couples’ initial meeting, these differences appear scarcely worth mentioning, so committed are the foursome to peaceful coexistence. (Frank and Virginia are even happy to learn that their new neighbors plan to replace the ugly chain link fence between the two properties with a spiffy new wooden one.)

 The first signs of potential conflict arise when the older couple learn that not only do Chilean immigrant Pablo and his New Mexico-born-and-raised wife plan not to chop down the centuries-old oak tree whose falling leaves have long been a scourge on the older couple’s carefully tended lawn, Tania is hell-bent on planting a “native garden” that is the diametric opposite of Frank and Virginia’s prim-and-proper posies.

Still, these problems seem insignificant (as does the backyard shindig Pablo and Tania are preparing for his entire law firm and the garden competition that Frank hopes at long last to win) once Pablo has discovered that not only is the fence he’s replacing located on his and Tania’s side of the property line, the border between their lot and their neighbors’ actually extends a couple feet into Frank and Virginia’s garden, and given how much resale value the additional square feet will add should Pablo and Tania ever decide to relocate, there’s no way they’re not going to take what is rightfully theirs.

 Property disputes may be no laughing matter for those concerned, but Pasadena Playhouse audiences can expect to be rolling in the aisles as tensions escalate, civility vanishes, European-Americans of a certain age find themselves pitted against young Hispanics, and whatever shared feminism might once have allied Virginia and Tania vanishes like the figments of a can’t-we-all-just-get-along dream.

 Not only has playwright Zacarías come up with some of the funniest, most zinger-filled dialog in town, by refusing to paint one couple entirely heroic and the other entirely villainous, she ensures that no matter which side of the political divide you may call your own, you can expect your loyalties to be swayed this way and that and then back this way again.

Under Jason Alexander’s snap-crackle-and-pop direction, Davison adds multi-dimensional shadings to the curmudgeonly Frank, the divine Fisher mixes cultivation with blue-collar grit, Barillas gives us the most deliciously put-upon Latino spouse since Ricky Ricardo had to deal with Lucy’s latest shenanigans, and Meraz displays her own star quality and comedic timing as the decidedly New-Mexican-American Tania.

 Julian Armaya, Richard Biglia, and Bradley Roa II complete the cast as three of the cutest, sexiest, and most ingratiating Gardeners in town, their between-scene roles so beefed up by assistant director Rhonda Kohl’s salsarrific transition choreography and the Latin rhythms of Christian Lee’s infectious sound design, they deserve their own standing ovation.

Scenic designer David Meyer’s side-by-side garden set is as gorgeous as it is spectacular, Raquel Barreto’s costumes are character-perfect as is Raquel Bianchini’s Virginia wig, and Tom Ontiveros lights all of the above to radiant outdoor daytime-nighttime perfection. Bo Foxworth is fight choreographer when push comes to shove.

 Casting is by Deborah Aquila, CSA, Tricia Wood, CSA, and Lisa Zagoria. Laura Gardner understudies the role of Virginia. Armaya is dance captain.

Barclay Stiff is production stage manager and Jennifer Slattery is assistant stage manager.

If good fences make good neighbors, then all Frank and Virginia and Pablo and Tania would seem to need is one good fence. Discovering whether or not they get it proves well worth a visit to the Pasadena Playhouse. In these increasingly fractured times, Native Gardens is just what the laugh doctor ordered.

Pasadena Playhouse, 39 South El Molino Ave., Pasadena.
www.pasadenaplayhouse.org

–Steven Stanley
September 9, 2018
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Tags: Karen Zacarías, Los Angeles Theater Review, Pasadena Playhouse