It’s the way many of us talk, or actually don’t talk these days. We text.
A new comedy with a rotating, all-star cast opening in Santa Barbara this week tells the story through text. Parents In Chains features six LA parents exchanging texts. But there’s also drama. Their teenage daughters are driving home from a weekend trip to San Francisco as a hurricane approaches.
Here’s the text exchange between two of the parents:
"This is weird. You wanna talk?" texted one of the parents.
"Talk?" asked the second.
"Should I call you?" asked the first one.
"God, no," was the reply.
The first parent said: "You ignored my call earlier."
"You gave me no choice, after all, you were calling," said the second.
He continued, "Since COVID, I have found voices on the phone sad and lonely, like cries for help from the void."
Parents In Chains was written by Jay Martel, an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning playwright who was Executive Producer of the sketch comedy show Key and Peele.
"I've had this growing feeling inside about parenting, and what it means to be a parent, and how strange it is to be a parent in an age where everyone has a different philosophy on how to do it," said Martel. "There were parents on the block where we were raising our kids that spanked their kids and there are parents who took workshops so they wouldn't even raise their voices. I was just trying to think of a way to put a lot of these parents together, in conflict with each other."
Martel said the real-life hurricane experience California had in 2023 gave him inspiration for the play’s story. "I happened to have my daughter on a trip with some of her friends coming down from San Francisco. In the text chain that followed this, I realized there are a lot of different reactions to the very same thing and it's all because of the different people we are, and that controls the different kinds of parents we become."
In the play, the parents share some of their concerns and stresses.
The cast will rotate through a three-week run at Santa Barbara’s New Vic Theater. It will feature TV, stage, and movie stars including Jane Lynch, Matt Walsh, Joshua Malina, Gina Torres, John Ross Bowie, and Thomas Sadoski.
Six-time Emmy Award-nominated actress Sharon Lawrence is anchoring the production, as the only cast member who will appear in all three weeks of the play.
"Tone of voice tells you so much about what is intended and we lose that with texting," said Lawrence. "But you get it in six different versions with the six characters in this play."
Lawrence said having the different casts brings a new flavor to the play each week. "One of the things that I love best about my business is the variety of not just the stories that we tell, but the people and the artists we get to tell them with. I have done rotating casts before and I find them not just exciting, but the voices that come together create a different tone and harmony in any combination."
Director Andy Fickman directed a workshop version of the play in Los Angeles with Jason Alexander, Kristen Bell, and others and he’s excited it will get its first full run.
"Jay's material spoke to me right away as a parent who deals with texting with my kids," said Fickman. "I thought there was something really magical whether you have kids, or not have kids, it's just the lack of communication that happens with humans now. I thought I'd bring that to life."
Fickman talked about what he hopes audiences get from the production.
"I hope that they find the humor and absurdity in where we are as a culture around the world right now," said Fickman. "I would much rather text somebody than have a long conversation. And, it's sort of what's kind of happened to us. So, I want them (the audience) laughing because things have gotten so absurd in how we interpersonally communicate."
Parents in Chains opens Wednesday night and runs through March 30 at the Ensemble Theater Company’s New Vic Theater.
