Something Smells...
On Sarah Grace Goldman's 'Stench'
Sarah Grace Goldman’s wickedly imaginative new play Stench opened at the Tank this weekend with a signature scent in the air – Febreze Rainforest, with notes of Bergamot, Aloe Flower, and White Musk. It’s portentous of the kind of night you might expect from a Trove Treasure (aka full production, separate from ‘Trinket’) – off-kilter, immensely fun, and just-a-bit ironic. I was invited to share some thoughts on Sarah Grace’s script in anticipation of the show’s second weekend of performances. You’ll find some reflections (hopefully odor-free) below.
Gus Mahoney and Sarah Grace Goldman in Stench.
Goldman “hop, skips, and jumps” onto the scene as part of an impressive crew of experimentalists coming out of Northwestern’s MFA. (Peers Kallan Dana and Salwa Meghjee are also Trove regulars.) Stench, her first full production in NYC, is imaginative, shocking, and just good clean fun. It’s a Greek family drama by way Adult Swim, with enough teeth (claws?) to keep things whizzing along.
Tell me if you’ve heard this one before: Bobby is 10,000 years old. He lives with his adopted children – Gretchen, Phil, Homer, and Sapphire – united by the fact that they all smell unbearably awful. Bobby has painstakingly created a home for the family to isolate, an insular world where they can commune in terrible smell and shirk the unapproving sniffs of the modern world. Only, something’s fishy. Sapphire has found a cure to the stench, and Bobby doesn’t seem too interested in that at all. Intrusions from the outside pile onto internal tensions and erupt into a play shockingly tense for its chirpy premise. It’s a dark fairy tale spun with endless creativity (and, yes, good jokes) by Goldman, who also acts as Gretchen.
The cast of Stench.
Stench slides in and out of textual styles – direct address, first-person narration, classic ‘dinner table’ scenes - a collage of unencumbered formal imagination. The story's traversing across narrative styles makes it feel, at times, akin to the surreal comedy work of Eric André or Chris Morris. Even more delicious is the play’s insistence on providing a tale over moral – no clunky metaphors to be had here, no pulpit in sight, just a terribly enthralling story with some stink.
Stench isn’t a piece of fluff, though, it’s thoughtful and written with a surprising compassion, twinges of histories of abuse, beauty, and coercion. While there are no easy metaphors regarding the play’s stink and mayhem, I think it’s clear that there’s something deeper at play here. Goldman is writing something deeply felt and true. With Stench I feel we’ve gotten just a peek into a vast and creative mind. I’m excited to see what’s next.
The cast of Stench.
Stench runs at The Tank through September 13th. It was written by Sarah Grace Goldman and directed by Max Mooney. It features Chase Bishop, Chris Erdman, Sarah Grace Goldman, Frankie Goodman, Gus Mahoney, and Sid Ross. Lighting by Jacqueline Scaletta, sound by Nicolas Webster, props by jbroc, set by Pete Betcher, fight choreo by Mitchell Ashe. The production is stage managed by Emilie Osborne.
You can get tickets here.