(Photo by Chaz D. Photography)
American Stage is celebrating the close of its 46th season with the world premiere of the fairytale comedy “The Figs.”
The show runs through Aug. 4 and began as a first-year project for LGBTQ+ playwright Doug Robinson at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. He conceptualized it in spring of 2021 and began writing it in October of the same year.
Robinson took inspiration from some of his favorite genres, fairytales and folklore. “It was just about throwing caution to the wind in whatever your fancy is and exploring it, because this isn’t realism,” he says. “I’m not trying to loudly point out a truth. I’m trying to create a playground.”
Each member of the cast of nine plays multiple parts as well as a main role. The show features Kayland Jordan as the Storyteller; Rita Cole as the King; Charlene Hong White as the Princess and Em Whiteworth as June. Rounding out the cast are Natalya Lynette Rathnam as Lorna; Jemier Jenkins as Jin; Eric Olson as Jod; Troy Brooks as Swing One and Morgan Tapp as Swing Two.
Robinson grew up surrounded by storytellers like his father, a writer that inspired him to create his own stories growing up. He had been in theatre his whole life, originally wanting to be an actor. He was uninspired by the plays he was auditioning for, leading him to pursue playwriting.
American Stage picked up “The Figs” after its staged live reading at the Lift Every Voice New Play Festival last year. The festival is dedicated to providing exposure to emerging playwrights with a focus on women, BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ storytellers and gives playwrights an opportunity to hone their craft with their peers.
“What I loved about the Lift Every Voice Festival is it gives space for writers to develop their work,” Robinson explained after the festival.
He also detailed his gratitude for having his work be picked up by American Stage fresh out of graduate school.
“Theaters have a finite number of resources, and they have esthetic and they have choice. So, the fact I’ve only been graduated a month and I got to walk into a rehearsal room immediately with actors who are charming and designers who are ready and a director who is a leader,” he said. “There is only gratitude in that respect.”
“The Figs” is about a “king that rules the magical, ludicrous, kingdom of The Figs [and] is quite actually addicted to figs,” the official synopsis reads. “…His more publicly well-received daughter is in love with an innkeeper in a sort of star-crossed lovers situation. A set of friends — human and swan — are on a journey thrown into existence by the royal family’s insanity.
All the while, our wily and multiple identity-sporting storyteller keeps us on a track that feels like the ‘Shrek’ universe on an acid trip.”
“But really, this is a story of kindness and what we’ll sacrifice for love,” it adds. “Sometimes stories exist just for the sake of telling stories.”
The play features the staples of a typical folktale — a greedy king, a doomed love story, an unusual friendship and a quirky storyteller. As typical folktales also feature heteronormative relationships and cis-white characters, Robinson wanted “The Figs” to be more. He wanted his play to appeal to a larger audience who could see themselves in the story and relate to it.
Representation in folktales is especially important to him as a queer, Black man who grew up with none that he could relate to. The cast is made of diverse set of actors from all walks of life, as well as a main plotline featuring a lesbian princess whose madly in love with her partner, the innkeeper. Robinson sees his inclusion of a lesbian princess as normal rather than innovative or brave.
“All my life I’ve been surrounded by the LGBT community, and it is a wild thing that I put a lesbian princess on stage. People are like ‘The princess is a lesbian,’ and I’m like, ‘my whole life has been lesbian, what are you talking about?’ This is the most every day, commonplace occurrence of people,” Robinson explains. “People say ‘it’s so brave,’ and I’m like, ‘if you say it’s brave, I guess to you it’s brave,’ but for me, this is my community. These are my people. These are my best friends. Of course, they’re going to be on stage. This is myself.”
In Robinson’s experience as a queer man, he has seen the community’s openness and curiosity for others. The play features characters digging deep in themselves and others to learn their true purpose, something Robinson thinks the LGBTQ+ community might see themselves in.
“This is a play in which one of the through lines is people just saying, ‘what if’ to each other and learning of the stories that they want to tell and the dreams that they have,” he details. “So, in that way, I think many communities, but specifically the LGBTQ community, can engage in terms of there’s a desire of connection, a desire being seen, a recognition of the loneliness that can come with isolation, and the joy that can be found when you find someone to laugh with.”
The play leans on the audience to tap into their imagination, something Robinson believes audiences have not been asked to do since they were children. Robinson and “The Figs” director, Helen R. Murray stress the importance of using one’s imagination even as they get older.
“This piece of theatre asks audiences to remember a time in their lives when they played and imagined,” Murray shared earlier in the season. “Just because we grew up does not mean we should leave those parts of ourselves behind.”
Imagination goes beyond theatre for Robinson. He works with young students and has seen their imaginations dwindle as they age. He hopes that with “The Figs,” audiences can feel empowered to use their imaginations and become storytellers.
“What I hope audiences take away is that you are in an imaginative being. Everything that we see around us only exists because at one point someone imagined,” Robinson says. “What was the last time someone asked you what do you imagine? Not ‘what do you want,’ or ‘what do you think,’ or ‘what do you do,’ but ‘what do you imagine?’ Because that’s where stories come from. They come from ‘what do we imagine?’”
“The Figs” plays through August 4 at American Stage in St. Petersburg and tickets start at $28. For more information and to purchase yours, visit AmericanStage.org.
