Veteran sanitation worker Danny wants to share his wisdom and teach rookie Marlowe all the knowledge he’s accumulated in his years on the job in New York City. Marlowe, an Ivy League graduate with a boatload of debt, just wants to drink her latte in peace and quiet while flinging trash bags into the back of the garbage truck but Danny, who’s in the middle of a nasty custody battle with his ex-wife, won’t shut up.
Penobscot Theatre Company’s production of Lindsay Joelle’s “The Garbologists” perfectly captures all the humor and pathos of this 90-minute play that shows the journey these two opposites take as colleagues and, eventually, as friends. While “The Garbologists,” which premiered in 2021, is not well known, it is a finely crafted two-person show that illuminates the lives of sanitation workers, who feel they are unseen by the people they serve.
“I lived in NYC for 21 years,” the playwright wrote in a letter published in the program. “It’s a city where you constantly share personal space with a full spectrum of identities and ideologies, and it’s a daily negotiation to coexist.
“At the top of the play, both Danny and Marlowe have very specific opinions about how they want to be seen; at the same time, they’re unable to see each other clearly. Listen … this world gets weirder by the day. Learning to see someone else on their own terms, while practicing the grace to see yourself in the other, feels more essential now than ever.”
Joelle’s New York City does not use the kind of trash bins and trucks that now serve much of Maine where arms lift the bin over the waste receptacle, empty it and place it back down on the street. These sanitation workers get out of the truck often to put trash bags, mattresses, plastic flamingoes, etc. into its back, using a crusher to compact it. The set includes a replica of an old-fashioned trash truck on a turntable that is rotated by the actors.
The production is directed by John Jurcheck, the artist director for the Belfast-based counter/current:collective, which specializes in site-specific, immersive theater. Jurcheck, who is used to small-cast productions, most often has worked in tight spaces outside in Belfast. He expertly makes the transition to the Bangor Opera House’s large stage and uses all of it well. This is a talky show but Jurcheck never lets it get static because he keeps the actors moving.
Daniel Kublick, who lives outside Syracuse, New York, plays veteran sanitation worker Danny and Mecca Verdell of Baltimore plays newbie Marlowe. The actors work well together, realistically capturing all things that set these characters apart, such as class and race, as well as the things that bind them to each other, including loss and financial woes. Both give layered emotional performances that beautifully portray the complexity of their working relationship and, later, friendship.
The set design by Braden Hooter, the production manager at Opera House Arts in Stonington, is spectacular. The trash truck is fascinating. The actors push it around so the audience sees it from nearly every angle. While it is not real, over the course of the play it almost becomes a third character.
The stage is strewn with trash bags and unusual items collected and displayed by Thomas Demers, prop supervisor. The rest of the technical team — Kevin Joacob Koski (costumes), Jennifer Fok (lighting) and Ryan McGowan (sound) — are equally adept at bringing a busy New York City street to the Opera House stage.
The only flaw in Saturday night’s production was that the costume changes took far too long. That really slowed down the show’s momentum but can be fixed over the course of the run.
“The Garbologists” runs about 90 minutes without an intermission. Please visit the restrooms before the show. At least four patrons in front of me on opening night got up in the middle of the show to, I assume, use the bathrooms. Theatergoers who can’t stay in their seats for 90 minutes, please sit in the back so as not to interrupt the flow of the show for the people sitting behind them.
PTC has announced part of next season but has held back information on the holiday and summer musicals. The season will kick off in September with “On Golden Pond,” being performed by Bangor Community Theatre this weekend and next at Columbia Street Baptist Church in Bangor.
That chestnut will be followed by the one-person, spooky show “Broomstick” in October. The shows in 2027 will be “The Book Club Play,” a comedy in February, “The Mallard,” a yard sale saga about a rare duck decoy in March and a recent father-daughter saga, “Birds of North America,” in May.
Penobscot Theatre Company’s production of “The Garbologists” will be performed through May 10 at the Bangor Opera House, 131 Main St. For information, visit penobscottheatre.org or call 207-942-3333.
