Jennifer Leigh Houston and Susan Ferrara, photo by Mike Peters
Nine years ago, Premiere Stages introduced me to the playwright Vincent Delaney with a production of Las Cruces. I thought he had a masterful ability to pull a topic right out of the day's headlines and place it into a story that showed the affect it had on real lives - turning the stories from mere statistics into something more. After seeing his latest work at Premiere Stages, I am fully convinced of his ability.
Delaney returns to Premiere Stages with The Mallard and plays are rarely as timely as this one. It’s a very funny play about an extremely serious topic. Two elementary school teachers are suspended and fighting for their jobs after one discussed gender and diversity in the classroom.
The play opens in front of a small house with a front yard filled with items ready for a yard sale. There are knick knacks, old slippers, used clothing, and toasters - lots and lots of toasters. Freya (played by Susan Ferrara) comes through the front door drinking a beer. “We’re hoarders,” she says as she looks around at the yard.
Her wife, Gillian (Jennifer Leigh Houston) comes out and asks, “How does it look?”
“Like a horror movie filmed at Goodwill,” replies Freya.
Gillian warns her that it’s bad luck to drink at a yard sale, but her partner thinks it’s worse luck to be sober through one. Freya is worried that nobody will come to the yard sale. The two haven’t been very popular in town ever since “the incident.” People were fine with the two being married and teaching their kids until they used a word like “diversity” in the classroom.
The couple have decidedly different views on the situation. Freya wants them to just move on, but Gillian is determined to make the yard sale a success. She knows they need all the money they can get. She’s studied up on how to treat potential customers - methods that sound like they came from The Art of War book.
“We stay ruthless, we are going to make bank today!” exclaims Gillian.
Their first customer is Davis (Woodrow Proctor). He awkwardly accepts one of Gillian’s snacks while hiding a second piece he’s force fed. He doesn’t seem that interested in most of the items, but a wooden mallard duck catches his eye.
Freya stops any potential sale and brings the mallard inside, firmly stating that it is not for sale. She tells Gillian, “There are only one or two things that matter to me and the mallard is one.”
Davis is told that they have other offers for the duck. He worries that the other offer might be from Morley (Eddie Gouveia Blackman), a fellow competitive yard sale reseller who has found a few valuable items over the years, often thwarting Davis and his partner Reagan in the process.
Eddie Gouveia Blackman and Woodrow Proctor, photo by Mike Peters
Freya and Gillian are inside the house when Reagan (Victoria Pollack) appears. Davis tells her that he’s found the mallard - a 1917 Horace Crandall Mallard. The two have been on a 15-year quest to find the extremely valuable and rare woodwork. There are only one or two of them left in the world and it is worth millions.
“I thought it was just a myth,” says Reagan as she sees a photo of it snapped by Davis’ phone.
The yard sale proceeds with Davis and Reagan as the only customers. Davis leaves but Reagan returns in an hour and pretends to be interested in some of the items. She tries to establish control over Gillian and steer things back to the mallard. It’s a war between buyer and seller and both seem to have read the same books on how to achieve the right price.
Victoria Pollack, Susan Ferrara and Jennifer Leigh Houston. Photo by Mike Peters
Eventually Reagan’s offer reaches hundreds of dollars and a bidding war erupts. Gillian gets so excited that she forgets Freya told her the mallard was not for sale. The two reach an agreement on the price, but Freya cuts up Reagan’s credit card eliminating the sale. Shocked and confused, Reagan returns to the camp site where Davis has been. The two are broke, nearly out of gas, stuck in the middle of nowhere, and have just had their last hope for money cut into pieces.
The play shifts to a board meeting at the school where Freya is fighting for her job. “I have groomed no one,” she says. “I have never been inappropriate… I am a good teacher. I would like to keep teaching. It is what I was meant to do.”
Freya explains the significance of the mallard to the public audience. It was a wedding present given by her father when he finally accepted his daughter’s marriage. He was a bigoted man and this change - even decades later - was important to Freya. She hoped the people in town would accept her and Gillian as well. After all, both had not only been teaching for years but likely taught most of the people in the room as well.
While deciding what to do next, Reagan gets a text from Morley full of strange emojis. They struggle to figure out his meaning, but assume he’s talking about the mallard...
Who will get to the mallard first? Will Freya let it be sold? Will the school let them keep their jobs? You’ll have to see the play to find out and to see the lengths each will go.
Woodrow Proctor and Victoria Pollack, photo by Mike Peters
The Mallard won Premiere’s Play Festival last year - a feat the playwright accomplished with Las Cruces as well. As with his earlier work, I highly recommend this play. I loved it.
This new play shows how the war on diversity not only destroys the lives of good workers, but can destroy the lives of people who could very well be your neighbors. It’s hard to leave the theatre without wondering about others caught in DEI removals. How many talented, hard-working people have been fired simply because they didn’t look a certain way, practiced a different religion, or loved someone of the same sex?
In the program, the playwright reveals the inspiration behind this play:
Along with writing plays, I’ve been an elementary schoolteacher for over fifteen years. With this script I wanted to fight back against the attacks on my profession that are growing uglier each year. So more than any other play I’ve done, this one is personal.
There are school districts everywhere - and not just in the Deep South - where you can get suspended and/or terminated for reading the ‘wrong book’ to your kids. Where talking about gender or difference or diversity is a quick ticket to your exit interview and a brief mention on the local news.
Teachers are attacked, vilified and denigrated, and I wanted to do something to show them in their true light. That is, as heroes.
As a guy married to a college professor, I can attest those fears are very real whether teaching elementary age students on up to college age. There is a lot of fear in the country right now and teachers face it as much - or more - than anyone.
As with each of the plays I’ve seen at Premiere, the production features a wonderful ensemble cast and great direction from John J. Wooten, Premiere’s Producing Artistic Director. Each actor has their own moments to shine and they all make the most of their opportunities.
One of my favorite aspects of Premiere Stages is always the way they maximize their space. It’s like a theatre-in-the-round experience, but it’s not a complete circle. The stage jets out with an angle that allows plays to have more of a 3D look than simply looking straight ahead. In this play, the extra area is used with lighting effects to give the illusion of a camp site, a board meeting, and an art exhibition. Characters are sometimes standing or sitting with the theatre audience.
Woodrow Proctor and Victoria Pollack, photo by Mike Peters
Premiere Stages at Kean is the perfect counter to traditional summer musicals or outdoor theater. The company not only presents wonderful plays, but often features playwrights on the rise with world premiere productions. The Mallard kicks off Premiere’s 20th season and anyone who has ever been involved with a theater company knows milestones like that are truly impressive. The First Lady of Kean University (Darlene Repollet) was in attendance for the performance I attended and it is wonderful to see that level of support from the university.
If you are a fan of great writing, check out The Mallard and make plans to return to Premiere Stages each year. It truly is a gem of a theater company. Here’s to another 20 years!
The Mallard runs now through August 3, 2025 with performances Thursday through Sunday. The theater is located on the campus of Kean University (1000 Morris Avenue) in Union, New Jersey. Click here for ticket information.
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