The Ask

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We are still not done blaming Covid for the upsetting of our routines. Even in the simplest tasks such as writing the annual check to support our preferred charity, everything habitual has been put under the microscope. Case in point, a “checkwriter” for many decades welcomes the opportunity to get things off her chest when a planned giving officer pays a call in person to find out why the check wasn’t written last year. It sounds simple but it opens up the door for some entertaining fireworks.

In Matthew Freeman’s very real The Ask, Greta, a white woman in her early 70’s, is a liberal feminist who has put her money where her mouth is for decades in support of the ACLU. Now a widow, the development offices of alma maters, environmental agencies, advocacy groups, and any other charitable entities become predators awaiting immediate generosity and sizeable bequeaths.

Greta’s routine of meetings or conversations with her ACLU contact, Carol, are disrupted by Covid. It creates a certain break in their constant engagement. Covid over, she gets a phone call to meet from Carol’s young replacement someone Carol hired. A downsize, publicly referred to as a “rightsize,” doesn’t sit well with Greta. Her comfort level with the organization is gone. Carol was a woman she invited up to her summer home in Maine. Young Tanner is a stranger, and an ill-prepared one at that.

Tanner, non-binary, assigned female at birth, while polite and saying mostly all the right things, presents Greta with a conundrum. Her decades of devotion to the rights of women are put to the test by a person who uses terms like “pregnant people” as opposed to what they have always been – women. Tanner’s spouting of the ways ACLU now operates is in direct conflict with what Greta signed up for all those many years ago, an organization whose bylaws got her through an abortion of her own at the tender age of 16. After shared interests in artist Cindy Sherman and a cursory knowledge and appreciation of dinosaurs are discussed Greta’s “Well, we’re going to get along just fine” gradually dissolves into what appears to be a chasm.

Betsy Aidem as Greta is the elder voice of reason in this play. Not one to mince words, she makes it known she doesn’t appreciate Carol leaving ACLU without saying goodbye but gives her the benefit of the doubt that the departure may not have been of her own choice. Still, it goes against her own sense of good manners that she has had no closure with the woman, wanting to feel their relationship was based on more than just stopping by to pick up a check.

Aidem brings abundant texture to so many moments. There is an exchange where Tanner reveals they live in Bushwick – the expression on Aidem’s face could be the Merriam-Webster photo definition of incredulous. She counters with, “I should go there. I’ve heard there are good restaurants.” As Greta has never let go of her support of freedom of speech even if it means offending people, she glosses over niceties with this new timid milquetoast in favor of being the first one to use off-color language in what is supposed to be a civil first meeting. She carries a phone conversation with her boyfriend into another room and returns to find Tanner in tears. Aidem feigns the requisite concern for a moment and then barrels through with the rest of her own agenda.

Colleen Litchfield manages to fill moments in a role that seems under-written in comparison to that of the older woman. The actual text is filled with parentheticals that make perfect sense for the inner angst of Tanner, but it can be very difficult to play something that isn’t otherwise there in a physical life. We don’t know why they cry. Having a bad day? Did they have a rough morning at home? They are married – is that relationship failing? Are they realizing that their mission to appeal to Greta for an “ask” that is five times her previous gifts is just a ridiculous undertaking and a complete waste of time as Greta presents a laundry list of things she just doesn’t approve of?

We never lose sight of the fact that Greta always has the upper hand – the checkbook is hers and hers alone. Even the pen is hers! Nothing is going to happen here unless Greta wants it to happen. Her arguments are compelling…even in the final moments there is a twist that makes you think Tanner has persuaded Greta on her terms, but Greta becomes the spider that reels at how effectively she humiliates the fly in her web. Aidem has always been an exceptional actress, but this clearly is a tour de force… “I haven’t decided what I’m doing yet…Not yet, that’s why we’re talking. That’s why I said yes to talking. You asked if I wanted to talk and that’s why I said yes” is representative of how she gives us a treatise on how to handle someone with a hand outstretched.

Freeman’s play is blessed with a firm directorial hand in Jessi D. Hill. Moments are never wasted, and every argument is precise and persuasive in its own way. Hill has Tanner’s discomfort calibrated to an exhausting sweating in an uphill bout that can only end in a defeat. The performances are complemented by Craig Napolitano’s comfortable design down to the detailed artwork and personal effects throughout, Daisy Long’s warm yet appropriate lighting, and Nicole Wee’s character-defining costumes.

The amazing work here is defined by how closely each listens to the other. In an era where we are easily mystified by social media and its allure, the art of conversation seems to be a lost art. We can watch Facebook reels of influencers visiting and promoting their favorite restaurants, but Matthew Freeman’s The Ask really gives us that nourishing food for thought.

The Ask (through September 28, 2024)

Theater Accident, Rose Colored Productions & Moira Stone in association with The Flying Carpet Theatre Company

the wild project, 195 East 3^rd Street, in Manhattan

For tickets, visit http://www.ovationtix.com

Running time: 80 minutes without an intermission