At the start of Oakland Theater Project’s riveting production of “Ironbound,” a couple is in the middle of an intense domestic squabble. A man yells at a woman to get into a car; the woman insists instead on waiting for the bus.
The bench at the bus stop recurs throughout the compelling drama by Pulitzer Prize-winner Martyna Majok, which, with clever flashes back and forward, brings to light the troubled life of a working-class Polish immigrant in New Jersey.
Lisa Ramirez is nuanced and terrific as Darja, who has a string of troubled relationships and insecure housekeeping and factory jobs.
At the opening, she’s arguing with her lover Tommy (Daniel Duque-Estrada, intensely heated), the postal worker she’s been living with, who apparently has started seeing someone else. But he also wants her to come back home. She’s unsure.
The 90-minute, no-intermission show then goes back in time a few decades. Darja, who is pregnant, and her Polish husband (a romantic KuveNiemann) are at the bench, at odds over their future. He wants to move to Chicago where he can pursue his dream of being a blues musician. She’d prefer to stay.
Moving forward years, down-and-out Darja is camped out near the bench, about to go to sleep lying on a old tire. She encounters a sensitive teen (a charming Kevin Rebultan) who offers her money for lodging. She’s hesitant to take it.
Under sensitive direction by Emilie Whelan, Ramirez is spellbinding as she faces off with each of these men, emotionally revealing her history, sometimes with funny barbs, and the compromises she had to make to survive.
Oakland Theater Project, on its cozy, simple stage (housed in a downtown store), routinely presents touching stories that enlighten and fascinate audiences. “Ironbound” is yet another one.
Oakland Theater Project’s “Ironbound” continues through May 25 at Flax, 1501 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. Tickets are $10-$60 at oaklandtheaterproject.org.
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