Nandita Shenoy’s “Washer/Dryer,” a new comedy play that examines the pressures of modern-day marriage against the backdrop of New York City, opened in Beckett Theater in Manhattan Feb. 2 and will run till Feb. 20. Nandita Shenoy is a writer-actor from Buffalo, and now living in New York City.
The play, which recently held its world premier in Los Angeles, revolves around the obstacles of wedded bliss of Sonya (Shenoy) and Michael (Johnny Wu) who are just married because Shenoy did not mention to Michael that her co-op apartment is single-occupancy and so he can’t legally live there, but she refuses to give it up because of the washer and dryer that came with the place.
They realize that there’s nothing like a hostile co-op board to wreck a honeymoon. The apartment is tidy, but friends, family and co-op rules are a mess.
When the tyrannical co-op board president, Wendee (Annie McNamara), starts sniffing around, Sonya denies being married, saying Michael is her “best gay boyfriend,” according to a New York Times report. This lie will sow much confusion when it reaches Michael’s imperious mother, Dr. Lee (Jade Wu).
Presented by Ma-Yi Theater Company at the Beckett Theater at Theater Row, “Washer/Dryer” is “only partly in keeping with Ma-Yi’s mission of producing “new and innovative” work by Asian-American playwrights, the report noted.
“After a week of packed houses in previews, not to mention a blizzard, I am about to open my first Off-Broadway show which I wrote and in which I star. I am over the moon with delight on arriving at this point in my journey. Three years after first writing it, “Washer/Dryer” has finally arrived in New York where it seemed always to belong,” Shenoy writes on her website.
