Review Roundup: STAFF MEAL Opens at Playwrights Horizons

Playwrights Horizons is presenting Staff Meal, a funny and startling play surrounding a group of lonely city dwellers who gather for comfort and connection in an environment of exemplary hospitality, as the world breaks apart. Written by Abe Koogler and directed by Morgan Green, Staff Meal is grounded and ungrounded in a mysterious and beautiful restaurant, where the food is delicious, the service is warm, and some strange power keeps the darkness at bay. Performances take place April 12 – May 19 in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Playwrights Horizons. The production opens officially on April 28.

The cast of Staff Meal includes Jess Barbagallo as Server, Stephanie Berry, Susannah Flood as Mina, Hampton Fluker as Waiter, Greg Keller as Ben, Erin Markey as Vagrant, and Coral Peña as Server. 

The creative team includes Jian Jung (Scenic Designer), Joshua Barilla (Assistant Designer), Kaye Voyce (Costume Designer), Masha Tsimring (Lighting Designer), Tei Blow (Sound Designer), and Steve Cuiffo (Illusion Designer). The Production Stage Manager is Ryan Gohsman, and the Assistant Stage Manager is Ashton Pickering. 

See what the critics are saying...

Sara Holdren, Vulture: Without recourse to literalism, Koogler conjures the quintessence of 2020 — the absurdity and fragility, the aimlessness and mental rabbit holes, waiting and grief, the forgetting how to talk to other people, listening to yourself and thinking I sound like an alien in a person suit. Staff Meal feels like a portal: We tumble through its funny, eerie evocation of the moment that made—is still making—our present, and we come out the other side feeling, for all its ebb toward emptiness, full.

Caroline Cao, New York Theatre Guide: I send compliments to the head chef: Morgan Green, the director of Abe Koogler’s Staff Meal at Playwrights Horizons. If you're the kind of open-minded patron who might crack a smile to the chef and say "surprise me," Staff Meal delivers. The play ushers audiences into a cozy restaurant space where two lovers meet and then takes us across unknown dimensions. This surreal adventure is like a Rorschach test: Whatever you make of it, its meaning is specific to you.

David Cote, Observer: It isn’t hard to see what Staff Meal is about (among other topics, questioning the value of weird theater), but the way it articulates the dance of service and fancy is what lingers on the palate. Koogler stokes our affection for the comforts of civilization but also underscores how fragile they are. I’m no food critic but take my advice: book a table before word gets out.

Average Rating: 86.7%