KAJE 74 15th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215

"4000 Dollars – Georica Pettus at Kaje I’ve never been at such a sad (tear-jerking) event where there was so much laughter. Georgica Pettus staged a tight, hour-long play with three principle players and a salacious “ring girl,” announcing different sections of the play, along with an exacting executive producer, heavily coordinating the entire operation. The doors outside of Kaje were boldly marked “NO LATE ENTRY”. At 7:50pm people were told to take their seats. Some did. The crowds of old friends and family mostly remained standing and catching up with each other–tears already flowing. At five till, the doors started closing and the supporting actors took the stage. At 7:58pm the garage gate came down so that at 8pm all was silent and we were locked in. Whether it was staged or truly a VERY unfortunate moment for a would-be attendee, at 8pm on the dot–someone knocked at the door. Georgica, playing Mary-Louise Ellis, enters to a roaring crowd. The play was a remarkable account of the struggle young people in New York face–constantly doing the mental math of how much money they have, the money that they can spend, what they want to spend their money on…what they NEED to spend it on. These kids need to eat. HOW CAN THEY WHEN A SANDWICH IS TWENTY DOLLARS—PLUS tax and TIP? Call it $25. With $25 lunches and $15 ice cream cones, is there space for young people in NYC? Of course. And, Pettus, in the course of an hour, recounts how quickly $4000 can disappear in the span of a day or so for the average young person. In the end it all goes wrong but…somehow she seems ok or like she knows she will be ok. Maybe because of humor–the continuous laughter of the crowd, responding to Pettus’s wit. Afterall, it IS a cosmic joke. Money is just our social contract to exchange goods and services. Our humanity is not contingent upon it."