Review: In ‘Native Gardens,’ complex ideas sprout from situation comedy

Native Gardens, the show written by Karen Zacarias which closes Stage Door Theatre’s 50th season, is a topical, solid comedy with a homespun take on a border dispute. Centering on an argument between Washington, D.C., neighbors over a property line and building a fence, it is a thought-provoking play that uses a microcosm to make people from across the modern political spectrum and current cultural landscape question their stances and arguments.

That description might make the show — which runs through April 28 in Dunwoody — sound highfalutin and preachy. But to paraphrase the late, great film critic Roger Ebert, it’s not what a production is about; it’s how it is about it.

Actually, Native Gardens is fun, warm, lively, well-acted, beautifully designed, fast-paced, family-friendly and quite funny. And you should go see it.

Attorney Pablo (Braian Rivera Jimenez) and doctoral candidate Tania (Erika Miranda) have just moved into their new home in a historic neighborhood, next door to their neighbors Frank (Rial Ellsworth) and Virginia (Tracey Buot). While planning maintenance over a fence, Pablo and Tania discover that, unbeknownst to anyone, their property line runs through Frank’s beloved flower garden. Tensions escalate, though not in predictable ways.

The characters’ demographic differences are stark, which leads to a lot of fun moments. Pablo and Tania are young, liberal, Latinx and expecting a baby. Frank and Virginia are older, white, conservative and approaching retirement. As their disputes over flowers and fences grow from micro-aggressions into fights, unexpected and amusing arguments come from everyone’s mouth, often to their own surprise.

Though it is jam-packed with ambitious, complicated ideas, Zacarias’ script functions like a Trojan horse, delivering all of its deeper gifts in the friendliest, sweetest way — a four-character situation comedy. It is effective, clever modern storytelling; it uses humor to make the audience comfortable enough to open themselves up to different perspectives and feel empathy and grace toward other people. Zacarias creates a scenario where no character on the stage intended any harm, which makes the central conflict unavoidable and tragic.

The entire cast is solid. Jimenez and Miranda have terrific spark in their scenes, giving their characters a nice, romantic banter. Ellsworth as Frank is sympathetic, fragile and a little pompous, which works well. Buot gives Virginia a tough facade, a defensiveness and more than a touch of entitlement, which is very, very funny.

The set design by Derrick Vanmeter is marvelous here. Two backyards extend out from the stage toward the audience so that we can see the problematic property line before the characters even notice it. The lighting design from Elisabeth Cooper is comfortable, beautiful and sunny, which makes you feel right at home.

Direction by Lee Osorio plays up the emotional sides of the story, assuring that every character is viewed sympathetically. The complexity and irony present are effectively delivered, and Native Gardens should lead to numerous lively discussions after the 90-minute run time.

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Benjamin Carr is an ArtsATL editor-at-large who has contributed to the publication since 2019 and a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, the Dramatists Guild, the Atlanta Press Club and the Horror Writers Association. His writing has been featured in podcasts for iHeartMedia, onstage as part of the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival and online in The Guardian. His debut novel, Impacted, was published by The Story Plant.