Spoilers ahoy!
The title of the current production at City Garage, Green Corridors, refers to a path through the war-torn regions of Ukraine where refugees might find safe passage abroad. The play, by Natalka Vorozbhyt translated by John Freedman with Natalia Bratus, focuses on a group of such.
Interestingly, here is a play about the Ukraine War almost entirely set outside that nation, following some refugees who find their way into Western Europe. Such echoes a classic story line made most famous as either The Odyssey or maybe Lord of the Rings. It is about people called abroad by need, who find their hearts and events call them back home.
We all want a home, after all. All of us long for a place, a history, a group of people we call our own. Invasion and war, organized human violence in other words, force us away yet call us back.
The cast--including such regulars with this theatre as Angela Beyer, and Martha Duncan, as well as Ricky Lee Grove, Alicia Ivanhoe, Dennis Kimmel, Georgia Orchid, Cruz St. James, and Eric Trosch--do a splendid job of showing us this collection of individuals trying their very best to live, to love, to deal with rage as well as humiliation. Frankly I felt an eerie sense of deja vu throughout, of every single time my own life has turned topsy turvy in some way. From living through hurricanes, weathering the passing of friends and family, to enduring the frankly ever-growing terror of recent events (at my own home as well as abroad), the emotional strings of memory felt drummed upon again and again.
I am a big fan of CityGarage, and have been for years. Honestly this production is among the most powerful I have ever seen from them, which please believe is very high praise indeed.
As of this writing, Green Corridors has one more weekend, Friday and Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 4pm on September 27, 2026 at Bergamot Station Arts Center, 2525 Michigan Ave. T1, Santa Monica, Ca, 90404.
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