Fifty Boxes of Earth: A Review

The world premiere of “Fifty Boxes of Earth” by Theater Mu is at the Park Square Theater from now through March 16. This play, written by Ankita Raturi, is loosely inspired by Bram Stoker’s “Dracula.” Dracula is recast as Q, a non-binary person from an unnamed foreign country seeking to put down roots before bringing their son and grandmother to their new home. These roots are more literal than you might expect. The entire play takes place in a community garden where Q plants their most prized possessions instead of seeds, growing surprising and beautiful plants that annoy a local gardener, Jon Harker, who is more comfortable with tomatoes and peas.

The storytelling of the plant life in “Fifty Boxes of Earth” is augmented by a chorus of dancers and puppeteers. The chorus wears earthy colored, loose clothing decorated with leaves and vines. Choreographer Ananya Chatterjea brings her signature dance, Yorchh?, to the stage. Heavily influenced by South Asian movement practices like Odissi, Vinyasa Yoga and Chhau, the movement is grounded, percussive and dreamy. It’s hard to imagine any other style of choreography underscoring the life and death of the plants as effectively as Yorchh? does.

From a technical standpoint, “Fifty Boxes of Earth” is a perfect ten. The set design (Mina Kinukawa) is rustic and warm. The sound (Katharine Horowitz) and lighting (Karin Olson) design create an ethereal, magical world grounded in the kind of reality only found when one is crouched in the soil of a community garden.

Oanh Vu and Andrew Young, who designed and built the floral puppets, gracefully navigate the boundary between magic and the mundane. Their puppets, which are mostly flowers grown from human-made artifacts like handwritten lists and brass bangles, are imaginative works of art.

Che’Li steals the show as Q. Dressed as a gentleman scholar (vest, collared shirt, loose trousers) and a rainbow keffiyeh around their waist, Q is clearly queer-coded from the moment they step on stage. They are also immediately likable and quick to laugh with a friendly, nonchalant affect and a husky voice that places them somewhere beyond the binary.

Brilliantly, playwright Raturi has shifted the lens of Dracula ever so slightly, exploring and criticizing the fear of immigrants that is inherent to Stoker’s original text. In “Fifty Boxes of Earth,” we can acknowledge the oddness of Q (after all, they sleep in their garden, and they are planting sheets of paper and jewelry), but Raturi effortlessly paints the image of a kind, homesick immigrant. Q would prefer to still be at home with their family, but their country is no longer safe, and they just want to build a new life for their loved ones.

Raturi also pays homage to the theory that “Dracula” is homoerotic by using “Fifty Boxes of Earth” as a vehicle to explore a different branch of the LGBTQ umbrella: that of a non-binary person. Jon’s daughter (who wants to be called Harker instead of Mina — a request that is granted by Q but not her own father) shows hints of being non-binary. Q, who repeatedly discovers how inadequate the English language is at expressing their identity, also falls in that category.

I would warn anyone going into “Fifty Boxes of Earth” expecting vampires that you have to be a pretty die-hard Dracula fan to find the essence of the source material in this play. There is no blood sucking, nor are there shadowy figures that haunt the night or corpses that seem a little too lifelike for their own good.

There is a little blood magic. Q shares Dracula’s aversion to garlic. Characters have familiar names (Jon and Mina Harker). There is a penchant for written correspondence, but since we’re in the 21st Century, they’re emails instead of snail mail.

If anything, that tenuous connection to the source material makes this an easier recommendation. If you like “Dracula,” you’ll appreciate the Easter eggs. If you don’t love vampire lore, you’ll likely appreciate “Fifty Boxes of Earth” for its creativity, queerness and unique tone. I recommend “Fifty Boxes of Earth” for people who like interpretive dance, puppets and queer stories.

You still have a couple of weeks to see “Fifty Boxes of Earth” at Park Square Theatre. Market value of tickets is $45, but in an effort to make theater accessible to all, Theater Mu provides options to pay less if you need or more if you can.

All Sunday performances require masking. There are other accessible performances that can be explored on the Theater Mu website, listed below.

theatermu.org