OFF-BROADWAY REVIEW
THE LANGUAGE ARCHIVE REVIEW
Reviewed by Ron S. Covar
Published 2010-10-20
Like Starter For Bread
Like another stage play
In Julia Cho’ s The Language Archive, Cho uses elements of magic realism to tell the story of a
man obsessed with preserving languages although he has trouble communicating with his own
wife. If magic realism on stage sounds familiar, you’ ve probably seen some of the plays of multi-awarded playwright, Sara Ruhl, whose works are replete with magic realism.
Like a novel. Or like a film
In Julia Cho’ s The Language Archive, it is said that anyone who eats Mary’ s bread immediately
falls in love with her, courtesy of a magic bread starter which she inherited from a strange
baker named Mr. Baker. If the idea of gastronomical cupid or a thinly-veiled aphrodisiac
sounds familiar, you’ ve probably read Laura Esquivel’ s bestselling debut novel, Like Water for
Chocolate (1989), where Tita’ s cooking awakens the hidden carnal desires of people around her. Or you’ ve probably seen its film version with the same title.
Like a TV sitcom
In Julia Cho’ s The Language Archive, Alta thinks that her husband, Resten, does not love her
because he refuses to eat the food that she cooks; however, it turns out that it’ s Resten’ s ailment which makes him lose his appetite. If this situation sounds familiar, you’ ve probably seen Episode 206 (Tasteless Frank, 2005) of the TV sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, where Marie thinks that her husband, Frank, does not love her because he still adds salt to the food that she cooks; however, it turns out that it’ s Frank’ s medication which makes him lose his appetite.
With such a notable list of unwitting literary and pop inspirations, one expects The Language
Archive to be a fusion of the best aspects of these fine works. And if one throws in such
distinction as the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the support of Roundabout Theatre
Company, one expects two hours of terrific evening with Julia Cho at Laura Pels Theatre.
However, that is not exactly the case here.
The play opens with lead character, George (Matt Letscher), breaking the fourth wall as he
addresses the audience about his relationship with his wife, Mary (Heidi Schreck). Later,
playwright Cho goes beyond smashing the fourth wall as George opens the second act coaxing
the audience to join him in reading aloud the various Esperanto conjugations of the phrase, “ I am loved” , which are projected on the screen. The sudden change in mood in the second act, as the play lapses into full-scale magic realism mode, is quite disorienting.
In his role as George, Matt Letscher exerts too much effort to the point of being self-conscious.
Letscher delivers his lines as if he is fishing for laughter at the end of his spiel. However, while
Letscher seems like salesman in steroids, Heidi Schreck appears to be forever in a trance.
Playwright Cho constructed George and Mary’ s lines with poetic lilt which, strangely, gives the
feeling that Letscher and Schreck are acting mechanically and devoid of feelings. Betty Gilpin’ s
performance as Emma does not help in elevating the principal actors’ overall performance. The
play’ s saving grace are the brilliant performances of its supporting actors, John Horton (Resten)
and Jayne Houdyshell (Alta), who are both highly convincing in their mix bag of roles.
Set designer Neil Patel turns the play’ s numerous location changes on its head by representing
all locations with a single object which recedes, pops up and morphs from a laboratory table into a kitchen table into a train station bench into an office desk into a baker’ s kneading table into a bed. Not until Patel demonstrates here will one ever discover the versatility of an innocent-
looking long wooden table on stage. One wishes though that Patel makes full use of the floor-to-
ceiling double shelves in the background instead of just pointlessly sliding one of them a few feet sideways with every change of scene.
Michael Krass provides both Alta and Resten with distinct ensemble outfits as the Elloways.
Krass dresses all the principal actors as well as the multitude of characters played by Horton
and Houdyshell with fitting (literally and figuratively) costumes. David Van Tieghem’ s original
music is appropriate as it echoes the play’ s quirkiness. Mark McCullough’ s lights appear
adequate.
Like Roundabout Theatre’ s recent production of After Miss Julie (2009), which was also directed
by Mark Brokaw, The Language Archive falls short. Save for a few laughs here and there, The
Language Archive fails to excite and fully connect with its audience.
The idea of having seemingly random notes on strips of paper in the most unlikely places, to
emphasize George and Mary’ s inability to communicate with each other, is ineffective. It even
has a forced payoff at the play’ s conclusion. The love potion bread falls in the same category.
It is said that whoever eats the bread which originates from the magic bread starter causes him/
her to fall in love with the baker. Emma eats the bread which Mary baked from the magic starter
but Emma falls in love with George instead. Mr. Baker, the owner of the magic bread starter,
has been baking bread all his life before he decides to bequeath the bread starter to Mary. With
all those breads that he has baked through the years, everybody in town must have fallen in love
with Mr. Baker. Sadly, Mr. Baker has no wife, no children, no family. Strange, huh?
It is also strange that Emma and Mary do not know each other although Emma has been
George’ s assistant for quite sometime. Since Mary occasionally visits George in his office, it is
unthinkable that George has never introduced Mary to Emma or that Mary and Emma’ s paths
have never crossed at all. It is also odd that Resten’ s doctor chooses to tell a stranger (Emma)
over the patient’ s wife (Alta) such delicate matter as Resten’ s medical condition, including the
diagnosis that there is no cure for Resten’ s unnamed illness. Even magic realism cannot account for these lapses.
Among the many indications that the play is in trouble is the fact that the subplot is more
interesting than the main plot. The subplot involving the relationship between supporting
characters, Alta and Resten, is more engaging than the clichéd love triangle involving George,
Mary and Emma. The main plot’ s trite triangle is a situation which the audience has seen a
thousand times in the movies and on TV. Some scenes even feel like TV sitcoms. Only this time,
they’ re not as funny.
Another telltale sign that the play might have been overrated is the fact that it does not seem to
run out of anecdotes and tales to tell. It is worrisome when the playwright tries to explain his/
her play by way of several anecdotes narrated by the characters. Like a novel, there are too many
expositions and explanations in this play.
A final indication that this play may not be what it touts itself to be is the fact that, instead of
dramatizing and showing, the playwright chose to conclude the play with a narrated postscript
about the fate of the main characters, not unlike the screen text which comes before the end
credits of films based on true stories. It looks as if the play has run out of time, and it needs to
wrap up in haste. This trick smells of a playwright’ s desperate attempt to give closure to some
elements of the plot and subplots before finally flooding the theater with house lights.
At the core of this play is a formulaic story stuffed with generous servings of gimmicky
extenders made up of strips of paper with strange notes, Esperanto lesson, magic bread starter,
love potion bread, letter dropping from the ceiling, a baker named Mr. Baker, ophthalmologist-
cum-Esperanto inventor named L.L. Zamenhof, medical prescription for falling in love blindly,
etc. Indeed, this meandering play seems to be a hodgepodge of many unrelated thingamajigs
which are not organic to the play but are nevertheless thrown en masse into the oven without
any unifying element and then served half-baked. It tries too hard with too many elements which
only serve to distract from the play’ s message.
It seems that Julia Cho’ s bread starter fails to weave magic for her. To liberally rephrase the
remark about wrist watches by the mysterious Mr. Baker who treasures his magic bread starter
more than anything in the world, “ Even the finest writer comes to a point when she lags behind.”
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