Breaking the Code

This new romantic comedy play, Breaking the Code, by Claudia Hoag McGarry (VC instructor), and directed by Jordana Lawrence (Ventura resident) showing at the Namba Theater at 47 S. Oak Street on 8/29 at 3 pm.

Christy Pastence is a somewhat lonely 50 year old widow playwright living in the Upper West, NYC. One day she meets a young Pakistani American man named Moutaz on a park bench in Central Park. They strike up a conversation and their friendship leads to romance. Around this time, her younger sister lands on her doorstep in need of comfort and a place to live. “Rana,” a pessimist and hypochondriac is burdened by a nagging question: did her husband die by accident, or by suicide when he chose to lie down on train tracks during a war protest. Moutaz’s mother, Jumila, and Christy’s 28 year old daughter Toni bring their own set of life’s issues to the scenario making for a lively journey by all five characters. Each character has a code by which they are living but are also struggling to get through in order to move forward.  A Leonard Cohen poem, “I Can’t Break the Code” inspired the premise of the play.

Starring Shelly Best, Gul Saeed, Heather Terbell, Claire Waterhouse, Shari Howard, Marlene Matosian.