A tale of two kitchens: Pandemic isolation stirs things up in family drama ‘Stir’

CURTIS BROWN PHOTOGRAPHY

Maria-Christina Oliveras and Philippe Bowgen co-star in “Stir” at The Two River Theater in Red Bank.

Among the many things that the pandemic did, it served as a magnifying glass for some of us, in some ways, bringing aspects of our lives that were previously easy to ignore into sharper focus.

“Now we’re all stuck inside, and I guess I never realized how lonely I actually was,” says Henry (Philippe Bowgen), one of the main characters of the 2024 family drama “Stir,” which is currently running at The Two River Theater in Red Bank.

“I was married and never realized how lonely I was,” says his half-sister, Mariana (Maria-Christina Oliveras).

If this makes the play sound depressing … rest assured, it really isn’t. Co-writers Melinda Lopez and Joel Perez fill the dialogue with lots of funny stories and high-spirited joking around between the siblings, who still have a deep connection to each other even though they live hundreds of miles apart. It is ultimately a play about coming to terms with the reality of your own life, and though most of it is pretty earthy, it ends with some of Lopez and Perez’s most poetic writing, and some profound insights. It’s sentimental, though in a good (i.e., non-cloying) way.

The play, directed here by Edward Torres, is set in April 2021. Virus-blocking face masks show up as props, and there are references to vaccines and stimulus checks.

CURTIS BROWN PHOTOGRAPHY

Bobby Plasencia in “Stir.”

Henry is an unemployed graphic designer who is gay and single — with many relationships in his past, but also a fear of long-term commitment. He has moved from New York to Orlando to stay with his elderly but perky father (Bobby Plasencia), whom his children call Papi. Papi is of Puerto Rican heritage, and his Cuban-American wife, referred to as Mami, recently died of cancer. (She was the mother of both Mariana and Henry, though Mariana had a different father.)

Mariana lives in Buffalo, where she has two grown children and a husband, though the marriage is strained. She works as an accountant, and has been able to stay busy during with the pandemic by meeting with her clients via Zoom.

The play is basically a long conversation, via Zoom, with Henry and Mariana in their respective kitchens, and Papi popping in and out; he spends much of the play outside of the house, but does get a vital soliloquy of his own.

You don’t realize it at first — as the characters go about their business on the same stage, before the Zoom call starts — but you soon realize you are watching two different, differently decorated kitchens.

The purpose of the call is for Mariana to show Henry how their mother made her frijoles, which he loved, and they make the black bean dish together, in real time, in the course of the play. (Upon exiting the theater, audience members can help themselves to free samples, courtesy of a local restaurant.) But there is also talk about lots of other things, including a family camping trip of their youth that was important to them, in different ways; and an ‘N Sync concert they both attended.

There is a dream-like quality to some of the play. Sometimes Mariana and Henry speak into their laptops, as people do when they communicate via Zoom. But often, Lopez, Perez and Torres have them move all over the stage and interact with each other more directly, as if they are in the same room with each other, and the Zoom premise temporarily vanishes. While they use different frying pans, they throw the frijoles ingredients into the same pot — a symbol for their unbreakable bond.

CURTIS BROWN PHOTOGRAPHY

Philippe Bowgen with Maria-Christina Oliveras in “Stir.”

They sometimes use Spanish phrases, or have brief exchanges in that languages, but almost everything is understandable by the context. I am far from fluent — though I did study the language in high school — and never felt that the language was an obstacle.

The Zoom angle, and some frank talk about sex, gives “Stir” a modern feel. But in other ways the play follows the time-honored conventions of the family drama. Secrets are revealed. Happy memories — for this family, many involve domino games — are shared, but traumas are also revisited. One character has a moment of crisis, in the form of a panic attack. Long-simmering frustrations are aired, and love is reaffirmed.

Maybe this conventionality is part of the point: We may have felt that we were living in a whole new world during the pandemic. But really, it was the same old world. And what better way to illustrate that than by having a brother and sister chat, and bicker — and reassure themselves that though things may look grim now, everything is going to be okay — while preparing a beloved comfort food?

The Two River Theater in Red Bank will present “Stir” through Nov. 22; visit tworivertheater.org.

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