Exit Cuckoo

Written by Lisa Ramirez

Directed by May Adrales

At TBG Theater

312 West 36th Street

212-279-4200

Review by Bryan Clark

 

When Lisa Ramirez takes the stage in her solo show Exit Cuckoo and announces, “I’m a nanny — well, really I’m an actress,” the threat of an impending rant of failure hangs uncomfortably in the air. After an account of her move to New York with the dream of going “back in time” to experience the heady days of the off-off movement, this threat seems certain to be realized. But when she arrives at a temp agency to find a “day job,” she makes a startling shift into the agency’s manager, the first of many finely-drawn characters to come.

 

Ramirez achieves the neat trick of a first-person narrative, intercut with other characters who deliver monologues to her, with only the occasional back-and-forth dialogue. Her transformations are impressive — often accent-driven and slightly costume-assisted, but mainly achieved through good old-fashioned acting. Ramirez reveals a world of wealthy New Yorkers and the nannies who take care of their children. Or, as she puts it, “Those with money and those who need their money to send home to their own children.”

 

The Nanny Diaries: Lisa Ramirez looks after some wealthy New Yorkers’ kids in Exit Cuckoo.

 

This is the central discovery of the play: that nannydom is not only about class in America, but also economics in the countries where many nannies have left their own children behind, sending their checks home so the rest of their family can survive. Ramirez’s own suspension of her artistic dreams while wandering in this accidental child-care career path is the thread that ties the show together, but the message of economic injustice and political activism is far more interesting and eye-opening.

 

This provocative new text and its simple yet handsome production (designed by Ji-Youn Chang and Lauren Rockman) deserve a proper off-Broadway run — perhaps. The Upper-East-Siders who drop their children in other people’s nests are the ticket buyers in the commercial off-Broadway venues. And although Ramirez is admirably empathetic towards the elite (even as she skewers them), those real-life characters may have little interest in hearing the deconstruction of their parental failings — all the more reason to see this compelling show now.