Memories of the way we were pre-Election 2016 ignite Jonathan Caren’s Canyon, the explosive latest from IAMA Theatre Company, Latino Theater Company, and the playwright who gave IAMA its much-awarded The Recommendation a half-dozen or so years back.

It’s Labor Day weekend just two months before that fateful Tuesday and 30something marrieds Jake and Beth (Adam Shapiro and Christine Woods) are living the good life in one of L.A.’ s rustic residential canyons.

Jake’s decision to play house-husband at the couple’s recently purchased Spanish-style home has allowed his MD wife to pursue her career full throttle, especially since Jake plans to continue on as Mr. Mom once the pregnant Beth has completed a brief maternity leave,

Jake’s college bestie Will (Brandon Scott) and his wife Dahlia (Stefanie Black) are doing pretty darned well for themselves too, Will as a public defender and Delilah as a devoted stay-at-home mom of two.

Last but not least, handyman Eduardo (Geoffrey Rivas) is living his own American dream after twenty years en El Norte, his American-born son (Luca Oriel) just a year away from college, the two of them proving that documented or not, immigrants do much to make America great.

And Eduardo’s pockets are about to get a good deal fuller once he has begun expanding Jake and Beth’s deck to provide a full-canyon view they’ll be proud to show off to this weekend’s visitors from Brooklyn the next time Will and Dahlia come to town.

Still, there are cracks in the surface veneer.

Jake, for instance, may be doing his best not to follow in the footsteps of a father whose lucrative car alarm business depended on cheap overseas child labor, but relying on his wife to bring home the bacon isn’t doing his manhood any favors, and Beth may be beginning to resent being the sole breadwinner.

Will may be proud of his Ethiopian immigrant parents and Dahlia of the “half-black babies” for whom she’s given up her “passion,” but she’s starting to begrudge Will how little money he is earning, particularly given the added financial burdens of a special-needs child.

Eduardo’s marriage too is being strained by recent expenses (his son’s tuition, his daughter’s braces), making it perhaps no wonder he finds it necessary to down a beer or two on the job from time to time.

Still, this is America circa 2016, a woman president is about to be elected, and rampant racism seems a thing of the past, at least as far as out-and-proud progressives like Jake and Beth and Will and Dahlia are concerned.

Then, in an instant, all bets are off, lives and livelihoods are at stake, and only the most ruthless have any chance of coming out on top.

If it’s not already clear, playwright Caren has bitten off a lot in the World Premiere Canyon, so much so that his ninety-minute drama feels almost like the first act of a considerably longer play whose second half he is asking his audience to imagine.

Still, he has as they say tapped into the zeitgeist, early scenes crackling with laughter at two couples’ best progressive intentions before circumstances bring their latent racism and xenophobia to the surface, and all six performances could not be finer under Whitney White’s razor-sharp direction, with special dramatic snaps to lead couple Shapiro and Woods and a touching featured turn by up-and-comer Oriel.

Daniel Soule turns audiences into flies on the walls (trees?) of his niftily designed sundeck set and kudos are due Michael O’Hara for his finely detailed properties, both designs gorgeously lit by R.S. Buck as are Melissa Trn’s just-right costumes, and sound designer Jeff Gardner links scenes with moodily strummed Spanish guitars while adding atmosphere-establishing nighttime effects, one of them a sure chuckles-getter.

Canyon is produced by Patti Anne Miller and associate produced by Holiday Kinard. Colleen Labella is associate director. Robert Mahaffie and Lucy Houlihan are lighting designers. Ryan Wilbat is assistant scenic designer.

Aynsley Bubbico, J. Claude Deering, Chris Gardner, Ray Oriel, Alexandra Wright, and Matt Yepez are understudies.

 As he did in The Recommendation and Need To Know, playwright Caren proves himself a master at keeping an audience on the edge of their seats while providing plenty of food for thought. Expect to be riveted throughout, and reflecting on Canyon long after its devastating fade to black.

Los Angeles Theatre Center (LATC), 514 South Spring Street, Los Angeles.
www.thelatc.org
www.iamatheatre.com

–Steven Stanley
February 28, 2019
Photos: Dean Cechvala

Tags: IAMA Theatre Company, Jonathan Caren, Los Angeles Theater Review, The Latino Theater Company