In the latest production by Word for Word, San Francisco’s esteemed literary company, the title “Assimilation” encompasses two different short stories.
Don’t mistake that title, though, to imply that both explore the much-examined tribulations of immigrants struggling to fit into American culture — because neither story is that simple.
In the second, “Smoke and Shadows” by Russian writer Tatyana Tolstaya, a visiting professor from Russia (the always astonishing, always deeply empathetic Stacy Ross) is living temporarily in the United States, in a small northern college town. In a sort of stream of consciousness throughout, she muses over differences between the two cultures (including detailed descriptions of disgusting Americanized food she’s expected to eat, like under salted kasha; notes that, oddly, Americans don’t wear hats; and wonders why love — love for people, for things (she lusts after a bracelet) happens. It seems she sees the mysteries of life in sharp relief, now that she is conversing with colleagues in a foreign language.
In an affair with a married colleague, Eric (Brady Morales-Woolery), who’s boring and “not that attractive” but with whom she can, miraculously, communicate telepathically, she wonders, “How can I tell if someone is smart if that someone doesn’t speak a word of my mother tongue?” and concludes, “Love is a strange thing; it has a thousand faces. You can love anything and anyone.” But, she pleads, “Tell me, dear God, why him? … Reveal your plans to me!”
Haunting her is Eric’s malevolent wife, Emma (a wonderfully terrifying Kayla McConnell), who is “a witch and wishes me ill.” As Christmas approaches, Emma becomes scarier — her third eye becomes visible — and the visiting professor becomes both less and more assimilated, in various ways.
Enacted with every word of the story intact, as is the Word for Word troupe’s style, an ensemble of wonderfully comic actors (Rudy Guerrero, Søren Oliver and William Rogue) takes on peripheral text. They make “Smoke and Shadows” (the shadows are ephemeral, but the smoking is realistic) funny as well as, at times, weird and dark. The ending is unpredictable.
Less emotionally involving, less surprising, but equally well acted and directed (by Rotimi Agbabiaka, with careful attention to the humor and the inherent tension in both stories), is E.L. Doctorow’s “Assimilation.”
Here, a gullible, feckless Ramon (Morales-Woolery), an American citizen working in a restaurant in Brooklyn, is all-too-easily lured into a scheme. He agrees to marry Jelena, the niece of his boss, the overbearing Borislav (Oliver). The niece is back in the old country but needs to emigrate to the United States and get a green card. The complicated family scheme involves a shifty lawyer (William Rogue). Ramon is to be paid $3,000 for going along with the plan. Ross, as Borislav’s permanently enraged wife, is hilarious.
Nothing goes well as Ramon is swept into this illegal arrangement, ultimately against the advice of his smarter, recently-released-from-prison brother (Guerrero).
McConnell, portraying Ramon’s extremely sullen and resentful new wife, slouches around in tight clothes and a permanent pout, positively dripping disdain. But she ends up being full of surprises. Observing her, an unsettled but devoted Ramon knows that “It takes time to be an American.”
This story of one immigrant’s struggle to assimilate arrives at an unexpected but satisfying place by the end.
Word for Word’s “Assimilation” continues through Nov. 8 at Z Below, 470 Florida St., San Francisco; tickets are $50 to $75 at zspace.org; visit https://www.zspace.org/wfw-assimilation.
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