“This is it again… and we’re just in it,” says Maia, the facilitator of a Buddhist trauma group at the center of Emma Sheanshang’s new play, “The Fears.” She talks about the mood of the room – a small, disappointing room with mismatched office chairs around a low wooden table – where she and six others meet regularly to talk through storms of anger, sadness and panic. Or at least try: interpersonal conflicts, clashing neuroses and a descending domino effect of triggers make for more breakdowns than breakthroughs, until even the group’s philosophical foundation begins to fall apart.
From the first scene of this intriguing but flawed play, presented by filmmaker Steven Soderbergh at the Pershing Square Signature Center, we get a clear picture of the characters’ personalities. Dan Algrant’s direction is precise and telling, especially at the entrances. Thea (Kerry Bishé), the newcomer, enters skeptically. Rosa (Natalie Woolams-Torres), a stickler for rules, enters authoritatively. Fiz (Mehran Khaghani, comically even as a gay stereotype) bursts in with a declarative panache, while the measured Suzanne (Robyn Peterson), always at odds with Fiz, saunters past demurely. Maia (Maddie Corman), overdressed in several layers, flutters in like a light breeze, and Mark (a stiff Carl Hendrick Louis) arrives late, nervous and eager. Katie (a painfully fragile Jess Gabor), a young goth, rushes in last and retreats into herself.
Each person’s trauma is explicitly described or alluded to through their individual triggers, which help explain, for example, why Fiz’s sister is a touchy subject, or why Thea has an encyclopedic knowledge of every traumatic event the world has endured .
Sheanshang’s portrayal of spiritualism has a satirical streak, with Maia’s performative display of empathy—purring and “MMS” of affirmation—and the group members’ rigorous monitoring of each other’s reactions, which is more about control than support. But at times it seems like “The Fears” focuses on Buddhism rather than the derivative school of thought—developed by a revered but unseen male figure—practiced by the group. And using the characters’ idiosyncrasies as punch lines is almost cruel (especially since several were victims of childhood sexual abuse) and undermines the show’s emotional resonance.