InterAct Theater Company theater
Theater review: Down Past Passyunk
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
Plays based on actual events end up compared to those events, even when the playwright fictionalizes the story.
Kathryn Raines
Plays based on actual events end up compared to those events, even when the playwright fictionalizes the story. A. Zell Williams’ Down Past Passyunk, premiered by InterAct Theatre Company, weathers that challenge well.
In 2006, Geno’s Steaks’ owner Joey Vento posted a sign reading, “This is AMERICA: WHEN ORDERING Please SPEAK ENGLISH,” which sparked great controversy. From this, Williams successfully crafts a moving personal drama.
Grillo’s Steaks, a 56-year-old family business, competes with a Latino-owned cheesesteak place across the street. Scenic designer Ian Paul Guzzone not only creates a believable shop — right down to the steak-and-onions scents and sizzle — but transforms it twice through the play, and Christopher Colucci sculpts a vivid South Philly soundscape.
Nicky Grillo, played convincingly by William Zielinski, fumes after demanding that a customer speak English and finding trash strewn outside his shop in revenge. Daughter Sophia (the always electric Alex Keiper) wants to update their stagnating business, while Nicky bemoans the neighborhood’s changes — code, of course, for the immigrant influx.
He re-brands his shop Grillo’s All-American Steaks, posting his own sign: “ENGLISH — TALK OR ELSE YOU WALK!”
Director Matt Pfeiffer guides fine performances: Bobby Plascenia plays the rival restaurateur, a modern suburbanite. William Rahill earns laughs, while also genuine in heavier moments, as a diplomatic friend. Brian Cowden’s peacekeeping beat cop nurses feelings for Sophia. Alice Yorke provides the play’s bittersweet coda, and the outside world intrudes through Kittson O’Neill’s opportunistic TV reporter.
The play isn’t Vento’s story and in comparison seems melodramatic. However, InterAct — true to its mission — balances the heated interaction with themes of change’s inevitability and today’s immigration debate.
Through April 27, $32-$36, InterAct Theatre Company at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St., 215-568-8077, interacttheatre.org.
