A Breezy Romantic Comedy (With a Subversive Streak)
Playwrights
Washer/Dryer blends laughs, laundry, and cultural critique
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You may not think a romantic comedy about a combined washer-dryer unit could provide a platform for subversion. But in Ma-Yi Theater Company’s uproarious new play at Theatre Row, Nandita Shenoy hides hot-button issues beneath laughs and laundry.
“Most of my plays are comedies and have some element of romance in them,” Shenoy says. “But I never see Asian- Americans portrayed in that light. So it was really important to me to have a central, romantic-comedy couple who are both Asian, and who are both sexy, and who are both viable romantic partners. That was my main motivating force in writing the play.”
The Ma-Yi Writers Lab, where Shenoy developed Washer/Dryer, is the largest resident company of Asian-American writers ever assembled. For Shenoy, that means belonging to a community of storytellers similarly committed to making characters like Michael and Sonya – everyday Americans who happen to come from Chinese and Indian backgrounds – less rare in mainstream culture.
“‘Asian-American’ encompasses so many different ethnicities,” Shenoy says. “We’re not a monolithic cultural chunk at all. So it’s great to have so many different perspectives in the room.” Having said that, she adds, there is one largely shared experience among Ma-Yi writers: invisibility on most screens and stages in the country.
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Shenoy, who began in the industry as a performer before resolving to create her own roles onstage, sees playwriting as a form of activism. “I will always write plays with more women than men, more people of color than white people,” she says. “Not because I don’t like white men! But because I think there’s a lot of work out there for them.”
The stage, she continues, provides an ideal space for pushing back against the preponderance of white male stories in America: “I hope my plays can allow different people to experience something outside of themselves.”
It’s meaningful, too, that Shenoy makes her political points inside a comedy. For instance, when Michael’s mother, Dr. Lee (Jade Wu), removes her heels to don indoor shoes each and every time she enters the apartment, it’s culturally specific — and hilarious. It’s a reminder that cultural inclusion doesn’t have to be difficult or even “serious” in the way we might expect. Comedy is Shenoy’s most subversive weapon.
“There are a lot of ‘diversity issues’ in my play that happen in a funny way,” she says. “I think people have more open minds and hearts when they’re laughing.”
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TDF Members: At press time, discounted tickets were available for Washer/Dryer. Go here to browse our current offers.
Follow Jack Smart at @JackSmartWrites. Follow TDF at @TDFNYC.
Photos by Isaiah Tanenbaum. Top photo: Nandita Shenoy and Johnny Wu.
JACK SMART