New Work at Redtwist

New plays have growth processes akin to tomatoes growing in the desert: they need a lot of resources and those don’t come naturally.  Redtwist has a dedicated program to hothouse new works and the current headline production of the parched  Deserted by Melanie Coffee has made it to fruit stage with a fully fleshed professional production: kinda like when you take your prize tomato to the county fair.   

Laura Sturm's direction wrangles this harsh realism based allegory that moves into a horror tale about environmental disaster into a compelling if long (2.5 hours) warning.  A kind of deformed Grapes of Wrath, in this tale a lesbian couple receives a soil (or is it dirt?) and seed grant to grow vegetables and grasses on desertified land. Like the 2002 reality show Frontier House where a modern family tries to homestead in Montana, these city folk don’t have the institutional knowledge to survive the realities of the situation.  It doesn’t help that their starving neighbor is creepy and not mentally balanced. The neighbor is played with no filter and raw physicality by Emma Mansfield as an embodiment of overconsumptive entitlement.

Jodie, played by Macaria Chaparro Martinez, is the grounded one– but is she? A lapsed psychiatrist whose back story seems to contain a breakdown, she wants to create community and share while setting up a situation that is founded in scarcity. Partner Emma, played by beanpole Hannah McCaulley, is a mercurial though pragmatic spirit whose propensity towards  violence grows faster than the weeds.   Cam, played by Shenise Danyel,is the clueless not for profit staff member checking up on them. This case manager is bumblingly enthusiastic and programmatically useless.  The story is rounded out by the hapless hiker played by Dontaye Albert who represents the danger of romantic notions and the human collateral damage of idealism without preparation. 

Hopefully as this work grows up, it will streamline and clarify its lesson and allegory. Sitting up close and personal in a storefront as a play is born in front of you (this one has a lot of blood) is an exciting way to support the development of contemporary theatre. Live art is becoming as precious as new seedlings, as so much goes digital, in a way desert-ifying our very lives. Witnessing new work is a way to fertilize new growth and “water the tomatoes” of Chicago’s theatre eco-system.   

Deserted is playing Thursday through Sundays until August 2, 2026 at Redtwist Theatre, 1044 West Bryn Mawr Avenue in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood. For tickets and information go to https://www.redtwisttheatre.org/deserted  

For  reviews go to https://www.theatreinchicago.com/