Native Gardens is a natural success

Cleveland Playhouse has been entertaining citizens for decades with its many nonprofit arts centers. It has more than 1,000 annual events and one million guests per year.

The most recent show at Allen Theater is Native Gardens, which continues to show now. It is the last show of Cleveland Playhouse’s 2018-2019 series for this season.

The show is about homeowners Pablo and Tanya who have just moved into a new fixer upper next door to Virginia and Frank. This comedy brings together ideas of race, culture and class in a funny dispute about a border fence.

By far the best part of this play was the scenery. With two huge houses built to replicate a backyard, it looked as good as real. The dedication could be seen in the painted trees and life-like backyard leaves and weeds. Even a huge tree stood in the middle of the stage. Everything seemed to be perfect.

Not only was the set design great, but so was the sounds and lighting. The audience walked in to hear the humming of lawn mowers and chirping of birds, a very calm sound. The ambiance was great as the lights went down and came up again as sunlight which reflected the time of day exactly.

The quality of the acting matched well to that of the set. Sometimes there seemed to be funny lines missed during a serious scene, but that very well may have been a directing failure rather than the actors’ lack of skill. Ultimately, they did a great job of bringing their characters to life.

The overall writing was very good as well, the points made a valuable lesson while keeping the script light and funny. Although it seemed to get serious at times, there was always something to laugh about.

Native Gardens runs at the Allen Theater until May 19th and I would strongly recommend coming to see this hilarious show, which probably has the best set I’ve ever seen.