Traveling Through Time with TECH SUPPORT at 59E59 Theaters

L-R: Margot White, Mark Lotito, Leanne Cabrera, Ryan Avalos, and Lauriel Friedman in TECH SUPPORT.  Photo by Russ Rowland. 

Tech Support by Debra Whitfield, currently premiering at 59E59 Theaters on East 59th Street in midtown Manhattan, is one for the ages – but not in a good way.  It is a trite rom-com, dependent upon a preposterous time-travel premise, in which Pamela Stark (Margot White), a middle-aged rare book dealer living in Manhattan in 2020, inadvertently embarks on a series of journeys to random years in the twentieth century: 1919, 1946, and 1978.

Pamela is in the throes of a divorce and something of a Luddite, capable of adjusting a pop-up toaster or opening a Tupperware container, but not much more.  She perceives herself as “an analogue girl in a digital world.”  And so, when her computer’s printer acts up, she is forced to telephone “tech support” for assistance but when she presses the wrong button on her phone, she somehow finds herself back in the year 1919.  It is there that she meets Charlie Blackwell (Mark Lotito), the kindly proprietor of Mrs. Blackwell’s Boarding House; Grace (Lauriel Friedman), an intelligent and politically ambitious women’s suffragette; Maisie (Leanne Cabrera), a much milder, fragile and old-fashioned – albeit pregnant - suffragette; and Chip (Ryan Avalos), a decent, handsome young man who, unbeknownst to him, is responsible for Maisie’s pregnancy.

(Pamela’s subsequent time travels are predicated on even sillier contrivances: she fiddles with the dials on a Victrola and a radio, pushes the wrong door buzzer, and provides a Lyft driver with a house number but no street name.)

But back to 1919.  Pamela prevails upon Maisie not to undergo an abortion, not because Pamela herself is pro-life (indeed, she actually professes to being pro-choice) but only because abortions in 1919, unlike in 2020, are really dangerous.  In fact, Pamela admits to once having had an abortion herself, although she also allows that

“I had a lot of sleepless nights and if I had it to do over again, I’m not sure I’d make the same decision.  But I’m glad I had the choice!”

Anyway, Maisie doesn’t get an abortion and gives birth to Chip Jr. (Ryan Avalos), the spitting image of his father, wouldn’t you know, and it’s a good thing for Pamela that she did because when Pamela lands in 1946 (right after the end of World War II), she meets Chip Jr. and they fall in love.  (Wasn’t so great for Maisie, though, who died in childbirth, which is simply glossed over.  Maybe an abortion illegally performed by a doctor in 1919 might actually have been safer for Maisie than giving birth that year, but we’ll never know and won’t really bother to think about.)

And this is what is wrong with the play.  The playwright consistently attempts to have things both ways, without actually dealing with serious issues in any depth.  And so, in similar fashion, when Grace’s subsequent marriage to Charlie is teetering on the brink of collapse because her successful political career is interfering with what her husband really wants -  a wife who will stay home, cook, clean and darn his socks - we are treated to this banal exchange:

Grace: You know that I love my job and I feel that I’m just now starting to make a difference.  But I love you more.  What does it matter how many men and women I help, if the one who means the most to me isn’t there?  I want to come home.  If it means resigning my office, so be it.

Charlie: I don’t know what to say.  I’m flabbergasted.

Grace: You don’t have to say anything except “welcome home.”

Charlie: Oh Gracie….I love you so much.  I guess all I really wanted to hear you say you loved me enough to give it all up –

Grace: I don’t understand –

Charlie: You don’t have to quit.  I won’t let you quit – you’re doing a lot of good for the city and I want you to know that you have my “full support.”  Just hire another assistant, so we can have dinner together, every once in a while.

The play is also insufferably knee jerk pretentious.  According to Pamela, for example,

“…for some women it’s [abortion’s} become more dangerous because of antediluvian laws passed by old white men –“

and according to Grace

“There are forward-thinking men and women here {New York] but I’m not so sure about the rest of the country – especially in the hinterlands.”.

And there you have it: Tech Support is a hodgepodge of homilies and its audience is trapped in this time warp for 85 minutes.  But I feel sorrier for the play’s cast of five, all of whom are consummate professionals who will be trapped in this time warp for the next several weeks (the play is scheduled to run through September 21).  All five actors should be commended for performing exceptionally well, especially in light of the material they have been given to work with.