There or Here (The 14th Street Theatre)

BOTTOM LINE: phone sex, angry North Americans, cancer, surrogacy, text messaging limited by generation, Spring-Winter romance, God’s existence, insomnia, first and third world’s colliding, masturbation, loneliness within a marriage….you name it and There or Here deals with it.

There or Here is the kind of theater I love to see. Not only is this play funny and dramatic, it also touches on so many intriguing subjects from outsourcing surrogacy to technology’s impact on our culture to battling cancer in a struggling marriage.

Jennifer Maisel’s playwrighting is brilliant; she eloquently deals with so many issues in today’s world. Her characters and dialogue seamlessly transport you into the world of the play. My only complaints are that she cheats us at the end of the play by not showing us what could have potentially been one of the play’s most interesting scenes, and I would have liked to see a little more evidence of the affection and love between the two main characters, Ajay and Robyn-evidence of the love they are trying so hard to get back to.

There or Here has an incredibly strong ensemble of actors including Annie Meisels, Alok Tewari, Purva Bedi, Judy Rosenblatt, Shalin Agarwal, and Deepti Gupta; each actor is specifically smart in the character that he or she plays. Amy Feinberg’s direction is superb; her staging is flawless and the 95 minute performance captivated my attention the entire play. Highly recommended.

(There or Here runs through September 28th at The 14th Street Theatre, 344 East 14th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues). Performance times are Thurs. at 7pm, Fri. & Sat. at 8pm and Sun. at 2 pm. Tickets are $18, available at 212-352-3101 or www.TheaterMania.com. For more info visit hypotheticaltheatre.org.)