'Native Gardens': Insensitivity abounds, yet we're laughing

“Native Gardens” is a play about racial, ethnic and social conflict. It’s about ageism and new money versus old. It’s filled with words guaranteed to offend someone, words like “privilege” and “entitlement” and phrases like “imperialist occupation” and “you people” and ... well, it goes on and on.

Discussions quickly turn to arguments. Fiery arguments, at that. There are threats of lawsuits and police actions and court orders.

But “Native Gardens” is a comedy. Really, it is. Not even a dark comedy. It’s bright and witty and clever. And the only out-and-out physical confrontation is when two characters engage in an acorn battle.

That’s how it is in the world of playwright Karen Zacarías, whose play received its world premiere at the Playhouse in the Park Thursday evening. It runs through Feb. 21.

The premise is simple. A Latino couple in their early 30s moves into a well-to-do, mostly white neighborhood in Washington D.C. Tania, born and raised in New Mexico, is eight months pregnant and finishing a Ph.D., while Pablo, from Chile, is a senior associate in a big-name DC law firm.

The neighbors, both in their 50s or 60s, are an old-school, thoroughly mainstream white couple. Virginia is an engineer for a defense contractor, while Frank is a consultant for “the agency.” But mostly, he is an obsessive gardener, fanatically pursuing the Gardener of the Year award from the local horticultural association.

They’re all good people. And they’re friendly. But like many of us, they are held captive by their long-held stereotypes of others. To Frank, Tania and Pablo are Mexicans. That’s as far as his narrow view of the world can see. Tania is offended by Frank’s artfully manicured English-style garden. It should be a native garden, she thinks, built around the plants that historically populated the mid-Atlantic. It’s not enough for her to quietly dislike it, though. She lectures him on environmental responsibility and his obligation to earth’s ecological health.

But Zacarías dances her way through all this nastiness very gingerly, filling the script with light banter and laugh lines worthy of an Emmy-winning sitcom. She has a knack for wading into complex social issues without making us uncomfortable. That won’t suit the rabble-rousers in the crowd. But in this case, it is a gift.

There’s nothing mean-spirited about “Native Gardens.” Zacarías doesn’t beat up on anyone. There’s plenty enough ridicule to go around. Insensitivity abounds. And yet, we’re laughing.

Director Blake Robison has elicited an appropriately broad approach from his actors that meshes perfectly.

Even when a battle erupts over a mistaken property line – it runs through Frank’s beloved flower beds – the conflict boils down to a war of increasingly humorous exchanges.

“Native Gardens” is sure to be a hit for the Playhouse. After all, Zacarías manages to address many of our foibles – yes, most of us are guilty to some extent – without smacking us in the face with them. It’s the sort of approach that made “All in the Family” such an unexpected success when it premiered 45 years ago.

With Joseph P. Tilford’s hyper-realistic set providing a study in contrasts – the lavish English garden versus the long-neglected garden on the cusp of revival – Zacarías agile storytelling and facile sense of humor have a perfect playground to entertain us.

Robison’s cast is a nimbly comic group; Karen Ziemba’s tough-and-cagy Virginia, Sabina Zuniga Varela’s “passionately rational” Tania, John Lescault’s easily excitable Frank and Gabriel Ruiz’s touchy but eager-to-please Pablo.

This is far from the most heavyweight piece of theater that we’ll see at the Playhouse this season. But it is skillful comedy. Zacarías and Robison both understand that if they are going to reach mainstream audiences with stories that take aim at their shortcomings, it’s probably best to wrap it all up in a constructive, agreeable and palatable package. And, in this case, a very funny one, too.

“Native Gardens” runs at the Playhouse in the Park through Feb. 21.

Email davidlyman@gmail.com.