Review: ROOTED Grows Beyond Its Premise at Live Theatre Workshop

Against the pre-show bustle of Opening Night, I found myself drawn back to Maryann Green’s program notes before the house lights dimmed.

Green cites a 2017 study suggesting that theatre audiences unconsciously synchronize their heartbeats. Looking around at the packed house at Live Theatre Workshop, the idea didn't seem entirely far-fetched.

It’s an appropriate lens for the evening. Despite its absurd premise, Deborah Zoe Laufer's ROOTED is fundamentally about the familiar ache for connection. Each character is hunting for a place to belong, though rarely in the places they expect to find it.

And while the laughs are generous, Green’s direction steers clear of broad satire. Instead, she keeps the focus where it belongs: on the play’s humans rather than the play's quirks.

After all, this is a story about a woman who lives in a treehouse, posts videos about plants, and gradually attracts a following of strangers who begin treating her observations as spiritual revelations.

The crowd itself remains unseen, but a growing cult hangs over nearly every scene, transforming Emery’s private sanctuary into something far more complicated. Michael Zimmerman's sound design gives the invisible crowd a character of its own, a foreboding entity lurking just behind the treeline. The production's real challenge lies in sustaining the sense of a growing crowd even in silence, which is the actor’s job. A few runs, and I expect the ensemble to keep raising those stakes.

For all its unusual circumstances, ROOTED rises or falls on the credibility of its characters. Ensemble chemistry hasn’t always come easily at LTW, but Maryann Green has assembled a trio of performers who make Laufer’s world feel entirely believable. For this old-timer, one of the evening’s pleasures was seeing To-Reé-Neé Wolf and Christina Walker back on stage after far too long an absence.

In the best possible way, Wolf’s Emery is difficult to pin down. Fiercely independent yet deeply lonely, awkward in some situations and keenly perceptive in others, she defies easy stereotypes. Emery’s eccentric nature may elicit furtive stares, but Wolf treats her isolation as a survival tactic. In doing so, she reveals a woman far more complex than the offbeat recluse she initially appears to be.

If Wolf’s Emery is painfully introverted and soft-spoken, Christina Walker provides a fierce, exasperated counterweight as her sister, Hazel. A waitress at a local diner, Hazel is the responsible sibling, but she is thoroughly exhausted by her monotonous, provincial life, carrying her own roots as a heavy burden. Walker gives Hazel a restless urgency; her crisp, pointed delivery plays beautifully against Wolf’s tendency to circle around difficult truths.

Completing the trio is Alexandra Kaplan as Luanne, an enthusiastic follower whose arrival disrupts the fragile equilibrium between Emery and Hazel. Kaplan never asks us to admire Luanne’s optimism. She simply inhabits it. As the sisters struggle to connect, Luanne becomes the one person willing to step across the divide. Kaplan’s sincerity keeps Luanne from becoming a punchline, emerging as the one person capable of reaching both sisters.

Richard Gremel’s scenic design reflects the play’s human friction. Staged in the round, the audience encircles the action beneath a canopy of hanging vines and a wash of vibrant green light (also by Gremel). Given Emery’s idiosyncrasies, I don't mind an occasional touch of kitsch, particularly when it seems to mirror her unique mental landscape. More importantly, the design suggests a compelling theatrical conceit: we aren't merely peering into Emery's treehouse; we are in it with her. The surrounding foliage presses in from all sides, hoping the audience feels as entangled as the characters themselves.

And if we were lucky enough to have trained the audience in advance, imagine a house full of devoted cult members.

ROOTED asks its audience to find truth within an absurd premise, a balance Green and her cast strike without ever forcing the point. By the end, the evening's reference to synchronized heartbeats feels less like a scientific curiosity than a reminder of why we gather in the dark. Theatre remains one of the few places where a room full of strangers can willingly become a community.

ROOTED, by Deborah Zoe Laufer, continues through June 28. For tickets and more info, visit https://www.livetheatreworkshop.org/

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