If you’re paying attention to the work of Chicago playwrights, you’ve likely heard of Omer Abbas Salem. In recent years, local theaters have premiered “Mosque4Mosque,” their queer dramedy about a Syrian American family, and “Happy Days are Here (Again),” an intense exploration of sexual abuse at a Catholic school. Their other plays in development have been workshopped at theaters large and small; this June, A Red Orchid Theatre will produce a staged reading of “Pretty Shahid,” a gay rom-com about assimilation — and Julia Roberts. Also an actor, Salem currently appears in A Red Orchid’s “The Cave.”
Their latest world premiere, “One Party Consent,” is now on stage at First Floor Theater in a production directed by Nadya Naumaan. Set on a university campus in St. Louis, the play is a tense workplace drama that purports to be about the degradation of trust but is also very much about power dynamics in academia and the question of whom institutions protect. Salem’s slippery script obscures much about its characters, leaving the audience not fully knowing who to trust, and the show also examines how people of color navigate largely white institutions.
Running a tight 80 minutes with no intermission, the play consists of two extended scenes, the first of which takes place at a mid-year review for MFA directing student Fola (Stephanie Shum) with their adviser, dean of students Ellen Healy (Cynthia Marker). There’s clearly a strained history between these two, as Fola’s body language radiates discomfort from the start and they furiously scribble notes throughout the conversation. Healy initially comes across as a well-meaning older boss, if a bit fussy and defensive, and her comically compliant assistant Sandra (Ashlyn Lozano) takes her own notes during the meeting, with her back to much of the audience.
The situation quickly deteriorates as adviser and advisee talk through Fola’s list of concerns, most of which relate to the experiences of students of color and nonbinary students in the theater department. As the accusations begin to fly, Fola — who is Chinese American and identifies as nonbinary — calls Healy out for displaying tokenism, while Healy fires back that Fola is being unnecessarily combative. The sound design by Satya Chavez underscores the tension with occasional tones that evoke the sensation of tinnitus (something to be aware of for those with auditory sensitivities).
As the show’s synopsis indicates, Fola records audio of this conversation without Healy’s knowledge or consent, which is legal in Missouri but lands them in hot water in the second half of the play. Here, Lozano switches roles to play Ms. Brite, a friend and former classmate of Fola’s who now works for the university’s human resources department. This prior relationship complicates matters as Brite moderates a second meeting between Fola and Healy — this time, with Fola’s future at the university on the line.
Setting this story in an MFA program risks veering into the territory of inside baseball, and for those outside the theater community, the characters’ debates about casting processes and established hierarchies in the arts might seem a bit in the weeds. For the most part, however, Salem manages to make it an apt commentary on the fraught state of labor relations, albeit in a very specific workplace. Plus, it’s a timely addition to the conversation about diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in academia.
Still, “One Party Consent” left me with questions. Fola comes across as the most sympathetic character, and the story, though not a first-person narrative, feels like it’s told from their perspective — which perhaps explains a slight tendency toward caricatures in the portrayals of other characters, especially Healy and Sandra. However, later revelations shed doubt on Fola’s reliability, making for an intriguing ending. This seems like a play that could be experienced quite differently depending on the individual viewer’s background, and because of this very ambiguity, I can see it sparking some lively conversations.
Emily McClanathan is a freelance critic.
Review: “One Party Consent” (3 stars)
When: Through March 15
Where: The Den Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes
Tickets: $10-$35 at firstfloortheater.com
