Theater Review: Dike

SARASOTA – Following two years of separation, sisters Kristen and Rachel reunite in Ireland, where the latter is finishing her studies. It is also the first real interaction between the siblings since Kristen has come out, at the age of 30, and to make it more awkward still, she's brought her girlfriend Charlotte along for the trip.

Kristen and Rachel's stiflingly-Catholic upbringing presents obvious challenges in navigating such a revelation, and playwright Hanna Benitez demonstrates that there are still plenty of circumstances, even in the liberal-Western world in the twilight of 2018, in which the ancient taboos of homosexuality remain cruelly prohibitive.

One can only imagine that Benitez, who describes herself as a "Cuban-Jewish American millennial," that often draws on personal experience, has injected some of herself into Charlotte, whose Jewish-Dominican heritage and comparatively-profound comfort in her sexuality leaves her grossly unprepared to relate to the decidedly more prudish perspectives of two Catholic girls from Indiana–perhaps especially so amid a backdrop as socially conservative as Ireland.

The young playwright demonstrates a profound gift for crafting intense dialog, every line of which rings true. Dike moves at a crisp pace as the tension is masterfully-ratcheted up and up through even the most subtle scenes. Absent the sometimes hyper-realistic dialog of a medium that is, for the most part, denied the nuanced subtext that can be achieved in film, Benitez somehow manages to bring to the stage something that feels much more like an indy movie than a typical theatrical drama. At a time in which the stage is desperate to draw the attention of youthful audiences, this may well be Dike's most impressive achievement. The play drips with authenticity so convincing as to create an experience so intense that it stays with the audience long after the proverbial curtain has fallen.

Rarely does it seem that such an excellent work is immediately rewarded with a production that fully does it justice, and the difficulty in managing the sort of flawless performance that was achieved in Friday night's opening begins with casting a four-character play in which each actress must be able to perfectly hold their own among depictions of characters who are themselves so powerful that such balance becomes as tricky as juggling knives.

Surely, director Tatiana Pandiani deserves much recognition for Urbanite's tight-as-a-drum opening. She had the good fortune, however, to work with a brilliantly-cast foursome whose opening night chemistry required no bargain with the audience in terms of accepting the authenticity of performances so skilled that it was indeed more necessary to remind yourself that you were watching actors and not real people, than vice versa.

Kelly Pekar is dazzling as the Kristen, the hopelessly-prim gravitational center of the story, while the young Alice Marcondes soars in the role of Rachel, whose youthful intensity of conviction so often seems like a kettle whose whisper is just about to give way to whistle. Morgan Meadows is splendid as Marion, her Irish classmate and close confident, a character whose pivotal turn in the third scene proves instrumental to the play's success. Jen Diaz, whose Charlotte is the only contrast among three puritans, gets most of the play's surprisingly ample laughs. Diaz imbues her character with the perfect amount of panache to give such a tense play its occasionally-required levity and bring some balance to the stodginess that permeates the other characters.

Dike is nothing short of a brilliant piece of innovative stagecraft that will have even those who find themselves cynical about theater's future in an increasingly digital world excited about the medium once more. It is also sure to leave anyone who has the pleasure of seeing it eager for whatever Miss Benitez does next. Dike runs through December 16, and no serious theater fan should miss the opportunity to take in this deeply-satisfying work. Visit Urbanite's website for ticket and schedule information.