IRONBOUND


Ironbound, Martyna Majok’s astringently funny, surprisingly affecting look at a Polish immigrant’s pursuit of “The American Dream,” is back in L.A. for an attention-worthy 3-week run at Hollywood’s Madnani Theater.

Marisa Van Den Borre stars as 42-and-flailing housecleaner-to-the-rich Darja, a twice-married single mom with a rebellious, currently AWOL son she adores, a philandering boyfriend she puts up with (though perhaps for not much longer), memories of the handsome young Pole whom she followed to America and then married, and of the hoody-sporting teenager who offered her a bit of human kindness one chilly fall night when she was at her lowest.

Zigzagging back and forth in time in a series of two-person scenes, Ironbound, named after the blue-collar Newark district where it takes place, scores many of its laughs from Darja’s dry sense of humor that somehow manages to survive translation into thickly accented, grammatically unsound English, and discovers its poignancy in its lead and supporting characters’ resolutely beating hearts.

The result is a play that’s as powerful as it is funny, and one that Polish-born, New Jersey-raised Majok has written with the authenticity of someone who knows her protagonist’s native land, language, and culture as well as she does the New Jersey that Darja has called home these past twenty-two years, doubtless channeling family members’ imperfect English to give her fictional heroine’s ESL an equal ring of truth.

I first fell in love with Ironbound and Darja when Majok’s play got its West Coast Premiere at the Geffen back in 2018, and though Loveborg Productions and Vs. Studio can’t give it the big-bucks regional staging of its Westwood debut, what they do have to offer is talent, both onstage and off, to breathe fresh life into the play that jump-started the career of a playwright who has since gone on to even bigger things with Cost of Living and Sanctuary City.

Director Kimberly Alexander brings out the best in the four actors assembled on the Madnani stage, beginning with a fierce and fiery Van Den Borre, as caustic in her digs as she is poignant when revealing Darja’s decades of hurt and the unconditional love she feels for her wayward son.

Chad Coe is so authentically working-class Jersey as the oft-straying Tommy, you may find yourself forgetting it’s an actor on stage, authenticity shared with a sweetly endearing John E. Phillips, who scores bonus points for Maks’ absolutely convincing Polish accent, and with a deeply touching Nicholas Anthony Reid, who vanishes into Vic’s expectations-defying skin so believably, you might be surprised to learn that the actor is not a teenager himself.

Production designer Danny Cistone effectively backs Ironbound’s requisite bus stop bench with a collage of worn-and-torn “bills” that have been posted over the years despite written instructions to the contrary.

Gregory Crafts scores major points for a lighting design that not only conveys the play’s transitions from winter to summer to fall and back snaps but convinces us that Darja is instantly two-decades younger than she was only moments before.

Add to that Anna Lloyd-Jones’ just right costumes and Dan Lovato’s highly effective sound design and you’ve got a production that proves that even minus Geffen Playhouse cash, Ironbound can hit the mark.

Ironbound is produced by Van Den Borre, Coe, and Johnny Clark. Elizabeth Pedroza is assistant director. Lovato is stage manager. Casting is by Kara Sullivan. David Elzer is publicist.

Even more relevant in 2026 America than it was when it first debuted at the end of the Obama years, Ironbound celebrates immigrant gumption and grit like few plays have either before and since, and in the unsinkable Darja, it gives the American theatrical canon a bona fide heroine for the ages.

Madnani Theater, 6760 Lexington Ave, Hollywood.
www.ironboundplay.com

–Steven Stanley
May 1, 2026
Photos: Vince Madero

Visit www.theatreinla.com/nowplayingrs.php for a review roundup of what’s now playing in theaters around Los Angeles.

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