The 2 Queers a Lesbian Meets at Home Depot
The current twenty somethings entering the workforce have done what young generations love to do: piss off their predecessors. From lenient work from home and unlimited PTO policies to movements of “quiet quitting,” the youth of today has made a grand statement of refusing to let career be the main motivation of their livelihood. Customer service careers especially have become a breeding ground for discussion over the last few years, rapidly moving from “essential” workers to victims of Karens. In Savannah Hankinson’s new play, “The 2 Queers a Lesbian Meets at The Home Depot,” we spend the 80 minute run time exploring work wives, U-haul lesbians, and how much “home doers™” can get done for minimum wage.
The set created at A.R.T. NYC’s Paula and Jeffrey Gural Theatre by designer Wesley Cornwell solidifies the mono-culture of Home Depot’s aesthetic, dropping the audience to a suburban Saturday fetching plants and plywood. The lobby is immersively curated with orange motifs everywhere, a positively kitschy display mirroring the silly plot. Over the course of approximately a year, with seasonal sale items acting as our timekeeper, we follow two workers at Home Depot’s “Customer Service” desk grow an unexpected friendship. Unexpected, only to those who never worked retail. The play, directed by Daniel Irving Rattner, does an excellent job of capturing how the forced proximity, especially of client facing roles, can create bonds out of the most opposite of archetypes.
Our two titular queers, Neavh and Chesa, anchor the sometimes confusing metaphysics of this setting, answering calls for a “clean up on aisle 94: Internalized Homophobia.” While these satirical, out of the box elements were achieved with varying levels of success, the main characters’ friendship was an extremely strong back bone for the plot. Neavh’s five year stint working with no appreciation from corporate and the declining health of their mother leads them to a diligent, no nonsense work ethic. Chesa is more concerned with texting back her girl of the week than providing paint samples, unless she can grab another spray bottle of keyboard cleaner to huff. The queer take on a classic buddy comedy is phenomenal.
Their friendship develops over a few holiday sales, coming to a head when a lesbian customer and Neavh’s favorite regular, Laurie, begins to date Chesa. This is the point in the show when everything gets zapped with a defibrillator and transforms from slice of life to absurdity. The scattered chuckles of the first act become roaring laughter as the show goes off the rails with plot, grounding us in rooting for Chesa and Neavh’s ultimate success.
Devante Owens' performance as Neavh was filled with gut busting line readings followed immediately by heart wrenching admissions of life as a non-binary person in small town North Carolina. I would’ve watched them and Chesa (Zoë Laiz) live in the world of Home Depot for a six season sitcom. If you want a comical night reminiscing on a past - or current - customer service gig, definitely check out “The 2 Queers a Lesbian Meets at The Home Depot.”
Photography by David Lobel
