In ‘The Ask,’ Liberals Clash Across Generational Lines

If you have access to a certain socio-economic milieu that’s well represented in Manhattan, you’ve met a woman like Greta, the elder of two characters featured in Matthew Freeman’s new play, “The Ask.”A stylish, well-preserved widow in her early 70s, Greta lives in an Upper West Side apartment that bears the markings of wealth and carefully cultivated taste. A Cindy Sherman print hangs in the study. Described in the character listings as “a liberal feminist who financially supports the causes we all care about,” she speaks reverently of Rachel Maddow and, conversely, can’t seem to reference Samuel Alito without attaching an expletive.Mr. Freeman’s one-act piece, now running off-Broadway at Theater 555, spotlights a conversation between Greta and Tanner, a gift-planning officer at the American Civil Liberties Union, identified in the script as under 30 and “Non-binary, assigned female at birth.” Tanner, who seems at once timid and poised, lives in Bushwick but has traveled uptown to request that Greta, a longtime donor to the ACLU, renew and possibly expand her contribution.Anyone who has kept track of cable programs like Ms. Maddow’s or followed social media could guess the gist of their exchange: Greta, growing increasingly passionate, expresses her concerns that an organization that traditionally promoted freedom of expression is now emphasizing identity politics while not managing, at least to her satisfaction, crises like the overturning of Roe v. Wade. (The play is set in December 2022, six months after that Supreme Court decision.)Tanner fields these complaints politely and with utter decorum, as you might expect of someone given this assignment. But just as predictably, the young ACLU rep becomes plainly uncomfortable as the matter of gender identification inevitably creeps into their discussion.Through much of the play, Mr. Freeman effectively elicits empathy for both characters and their perspectives, with support from Jessi D. Hill’s unfussy direction. Stage and screen veteran Marilu Henner, most widely known for her work in the classic sitcom “Taxi,” captures Greta’s initial anxiety as well as her budding indignation, showing us how this woman could be both charming and irritating.Shannon Purser’s Tanner proves an excellent foil, remaining modest and gracious even as Greta becomes more confrontational, though not without letting a little fear and a whiff of condescension poke through. “Ask” is at its most potent and funniest when Tanner starts veering into woke speak while Greta clings to old-school ideals and clichés, and we realize that both characters can sound ridiculous and also make sense in their own ways.The most salient point, or the hardest to refute, concerns Greta’s privilege, and her apparent obliviousness to it. When her boyfriend’s daughter needs a place to stay at the last minute, and she instantly thinks of a friend with a vacant apartment on Park Avenue, Greta muses, “Everything gets sorted, doesn’t it? Things have a way of working out. They just do.”The playwright has Tanner challenge this assertion, as if it isn’t already obvious what he’s trying to say. As “The Ask” progresses, in fact, Mr. Freeman seems less and less neutral; towards the end, Greta behaves in a way that simply defies credibility, issuing an ultimatum that no one with any sensitivity or manners would pose as she does here.The baby-boomer wonders why the young millennial doesn’t understand her more traditional feminism, which leads her to worry about men taking up women’s spaces. “Can’t you understand what that feels like?” Greta asks. “To be marginalized,” Tanner responds, calm but obviously offended. When Greta says yes, Tanner simply answers, still not speaking louder, “Yes, I can understand what that feels like.” It’s a credit to Mr. Freeman and the performers that, while “The Ask” can descend into banal speechifying from time to time, both characters come across as fully human in the end. You may even find yourself drawing comparisons to people you know as you debate the show afterwards.

In ‘The Ask,’ Liberals Clash Across Generational Lines

In ‘The Ask,’ Liberals Clash Across Generational Lines

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