‘What Became of Us’ brings extraordinary artistry to tale about ordinary lives

T. CHARLES ERICKSON

Christine Toy Johnson and Francis Jue co-star in “What Became of Us,” which George Street Playhouse is currently presenting at The New Brunswick Performing Arts Center.

Shayan Lotfi’s 2024 play “What Became of Us” — which George Street Playhouse is currently presenting at The New Brunswick Performing Arts Center — is about two members of an immigrant family. This lends it a degree of topicality, given how highly the issue of immigration figures in current politics. But Lotfi has much more on his mind than that.

“What Became of Us” — directed, here, by Laiona Michelle, one of GSP’s co-artistic producers — is a subtly profound play about a brother and sister, vividly sketching out the different paths their lives take, and how their relationship with each other evolves over the years. That fact that Q (played by Christine Toy Johnson) was born and partially raised in another country, and Z (Francis Jue) was born shortly after their parents moved away from there, helped make them who they turned out to be. But it doesn’t come close to defining them. Which is, perhaps, part of the point.

One assumes that Lotfi doesn’t include their names in the script, and gives them only initials in the program, as a way of making their story seem more universal. Similarly, they refer to the country Q was born in only as “the old country,” and the country the familed moved to only as “this country” (though there are many hints that “this country” is The United States). Sometimes they talk in generalities: Q says, for instance, of their parents’ migration: “They embarked on a journey harder than some, easier than others. They traversed unfamiliar terrains, witnessed breathtaking landscapes, made friends, navigated antagonists, received kindnesses, were subjected to cruelties.” By the time the play is over, though, Lotfi has given us more than enough detail to ground the stories in vivid reality.

T. CHARLES ERICKSON

Christine Toy Johnson and Francis Jue in “What Became of Us.”

Throughout the 80-minute, one-act play, Q and Z share memories — of episodes from their lives, and of things they remember about each other, and about their parents. Maybe because of the different worlds they were born into, or maybe just because of innate differences in personality, sexual preferences, etc., they approach their lives totally differently. Q is the good student and dutiful daughter who helps out in her parents’ corner store, and doesn’t go to the college she longs to attend, in order not to displease them. Z is a rebel with an experimental attitude toward sex and drugs, and leaves home as soon as he can.

She becomes a librarian; he, a chef and restaurant owner. He marries; she doesn’t. They don’t always get along. And at one point, their relationship seems to be broken beyond repair.

“I’m thinking I should have been more like you: self-absorbed, self-indulgent, self-serving,” Q says, sarcastically.

“How said, that’s how you view someone just living their life,” Z responds.

Lotfi does a clever thing with his writing. At first, the characters frequently begin their sentences with “they,” as they talk about their parents. Then, as they talk about what they remember about each other, as kids and young adults, they switch to “you” (“You were quite small for a boy, the nurse said,” Q tells Z, for instance, thinking back to his birth). Then comes “I,” after they fall out of each other’s lives.

But will they ever get to “we”?

T. CHARLES ERICKSON

Francis Jue and Christine Toy Johnson in “What Became of Us.”

I have to admit, it took me a while to warm up to this play. The characters seemed a little cold at first, looking back on their lives from a distance, with Lotfi resisting the urge to give them wild, dramatic stories to tell. Their lives are, ultimately, pretty ordinary.

But the play eventually develops a rhythm and a pulse of its own, with the characters trading memories back and forth, and moving around the multi-level stage — dancing around each other without actually executing any dance moves. Occasional strands of background music add to the sense of emotion swelling beneath the surface calm. And by the end, I was totally absorbed by these ordinary lives, and moved by the compassion that this brother and sister are able to extend to each other — and to themselves.

“What Became of Us” is ultimately a theatrical experience as remarkable as it is unassuming.

George Street Playhouse will present “What Became of Us” at The New Brunswick Performing Arts Center through April 5. Visit georgestreetplayhouse.org.

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