MUST SEE: Benevolent is luminous

Good Apples Collective triumphs

Ulises Ramiro

Sophie McIntosh and Nina Goodheart are not just the writer, director and co-producers of Benevolent, they are the co-leaders of Good Apples Collective. Anyone whose worked in the Off and Off-Off scene knows the work that goes into mounting a production like this, and in a lot of ways, it gives an additional depth to what's being achieved.

Set in 1917, Benevolent tells the story of four women in the throes of difficulty, each of them basically trapped in the basement that is New York's Inwood Benevolent Home. The design team does a wonderful job of inhabiting the set and lights with interesting textural elements that invoke the dank basement of a reformatory. The acting is lovely. The writing is distinct and dynamic. The directing excels. The play in totality is compelling and rich.

What'd you think? I was asked, walking through the East Village after the show.

It's just a beautiful play, I said.

Photo by Nina Goodheart

While the costumes are Victorian, the play itself has real, contemporary grit. It's clearly written by a playwright who knows how hard it is to keep a New York theater crowd in their seats. The pace marches forward with inventive plot points and deeply human characters. There are so many elements in the writing that bring the audience in close. The themes - sex, love, misogyny - are timeless.

I kept walking through the EV.

How good was it? I was asked.

It’ll get a New York Times Critics Pick, I said. (I was right.)

And it made me wonder. How good is this play? In the grand scheme of things?

Will it move to a larger theater?  How does it compare to other Times Critics Picks? 

Were some plot points a touch contrived? One of the girls is pregnant, wait, no, now she's pregnant. Do I believe Abby, played by the bubbly Libby Marcus, is capable of this or that?

My guess is that there is a propulsion behind Sophie McIntosh, Nina Goodheart and Good Apples that will catapult them into an even more dominant and outstanding place in the American theater.

Can Benevolent move and sell out 200 seats a night? 500 seats?

This is what I'm wondering now. That's how capable this company is. That's how good this play is.