Welcome to Gary Robinson’s restaurant. The wine cellar is fathoms below street level and it’ll take the wait staff a long time to bring your chosen bottle. Robinson will never appear at his own establishment—except in phantom form. Also, the dishes will all look the same, and an unhoused person will show up at random.
This is Staff Meal, Abe Koogler’s surreal Off-Broadway that is currently taking reservations only through May 24th. Koogler’s work defies apt description and to share too much is to ruin the audience experience. But if you have an appetite for surreal, bizarre narratives, then this is the play for you.
Whatever your tolerance level is, you’ll leave Staff Meal with an unforgettable theater experience and an eagerness to share it with someone. Just be sure not to reveal the surprises to those who have yet to see it.
In this Alice in Wonderland inspired story, two strangers, Ben (Greg Keller) and Mina (Susannah Flood) meet by chance at a coffee shop and later decide to go to Robinson’s fine dining restaurant where things start to unravel.
Koogler takes friendly jabs at the highfalutin nature of high-end restaurants and wants to make points about human connection. Whether they will land or mentally stimulate you, again depends on your point of view.
This is not conventional theater but it’s impossible not to admire the brave creativity and uniqueness that this work contains. In addition to Lewis Carroll, Koogler evokes elements of absurd theater figures like Eugene Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, and Edward Albee.
With so much predictability and commercialism in today’s major theater landscape, it’s not a bad decision to hedge your bets on the unexpected or something that carries with it only vague description. In this case, the bet will pay off handsomely in the whacky and wonderful Staff Meal.
Staff Meal runs through May 24th Off Broadway at Peter Jay Sharp space at Playwrights Horizons 416 West 42nd Street, NYC. For tickets and information, click here: playwrightshorizons.org, staff meal.
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