Review: THE GROWN-UPS at Baby Teeth

It is nerve-racking to attend the first show presented by any theatre company. You so desperately want it to be good. You want to support new endeavors. You are rooting for the seeds to be planted for something new and enlivening. When you receive an email alerting you that the company’s venue has fallen through and the performance will now be hosted in the backyard of an undisclosed address, suddenly everything is more nerve-racking. You want to give the company the benefit of the doubt, but what if you see something that falls flat due to the limitations of the sudden change of circumstance?

It is with great relief and not a bit of exaggeration that I can tell you that what Baby Teeth has conjured with their premiere production of Skylar Fox and Simon Henriques The Grown-Ups is likely to be one of the best pieces to grace LA’s theatre scene this season. The universe seems to have contrived to allow them to present a near-perfect production. With the gentle sounds of crickets in the background and the sporadic circling of LAPD’s helicopters, the seasoned cast weaves an intimate tale that is gripping in its triangulations of power and booby-trapped with a million Chekhovian guns which fire rapidly in an explosive climax.

The show begins with a ritualistic burning which immediately hints that the following comedy about four senior counselors at a summer camp is going to be about more than just the hormonal tensions which splatter about the surface. If I tried to summarize the unfolding events of the play, it would sound incredibly silly. But when artfully unfurled and imperceptibly directed by Emily Moler (I love seeing shows where any manipulations by the director feel so informed by the piece that they are easy to miss), there is nothing silly about any of it. Don’t get me wrong, laughter abounded around the campfire at the performance I attended, but I was chilled by the events of the piece and provoked by its statements about resistance to change and adherence to doctrines.

As Lukas, Cody Sloan is perfectly overwhelmed and constantly on the edge of tears, driven to the brink by all of the new language and new expectations he is trying to grapple with as a progressive young man. Sloan has masterfully infused the whole character with a respectful tenderness, without which, Lukas would risk symbolizing a demographic rather than being a fleshed-out individual. He is delightfully complex and artfully multifaceted, landing some of the biggest punchlines in the performance at his own pitiful expense. As Cassie, a newcomer to the camp filled with radical ideas of changes to protocol, Sabrina J. Liu is equal parts spunk and awkwardness. Just as with Sloan’s characterization, Liu brings such warmth to her portrayal that Cassie springs to life as a layered teenager hiding behind a careful facade. Caroline Keeler’s Becca, though a character who seems to be mostly along for the ride driven by the others’ interactions, mines the text deeply and lands as a profoundly human observer and reliable narrator. Keeler’s earnestness allows her early monologues to remain memorable and illustrative. As Maeve, a counselor who really doesn’t know who she is if not just a stellar camp counselor, Avery Deutsch manages to win our sympathies despite her embodiment of an obnoxious teenager with a level of unchecked power. Undergoing intensely emotional shifts, Deutsch seems to physically transform by the end of the piece, the original mask of wide-eyed, nasally exuberance we first meet has dissolved to reveal a young woman desperately attempting to do what is right.

Overall, the cast delivers a performance that shows they believe in the quality of the work they are presenting. It took me a while, in such an intensely intimate setting, to accept the volume with which they delivered the text. (I know they have to be heard, but it was jarring in such close quarters. If this was a critique I gave at one of the roundtables held at Camp Indigo, I would fail, as I don’t have a proposed solution, it’s just the nature of this sort of thing I suppose.) However, the entire effect has its eventual payoff when Russell Sperberg, who’s gangly, goofy Aidan has been promoted to the thankless position of Assistant Camp Director, totally breaks from the tone of the rest of the show to deliver a somber narration as culmination to the evening. The ideas presented by the piece are beautifully tied up and a call to action is tactfully put forth in his calming, assured voice.

Why are we so resistant to change? What systems of belief have we allowed ourselves to accept unquestioningly? What does it look like to continue living in the face of imminent collapse? In their premiere production, aided by a few string lights and a smattering of tie-dye shirts, Baby Teeth has posed these questions more effectively than you are apt to see from theatres with ten times their resources this season. Get on the waitlist for the run if you can. You will be riveted, captivated, and ultimately astonished by the simple theatrical magic being spun around the campfire.

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