PRESS:

In Sarah Einspanier’s tart, heartsick comedy “Lunch Bunch” (presented by PlayCo and Clubbed Thumb, at 122CC, through April 22), a group of public defenders—zipping around in rolling office chairs—distract themselves from their punishing family-court caseloads with a weekly gourmet-vegetarian lunch-sharing plan (barbecued jackfruit sandwiches, salads with turmeric, seasonal vegetables, always lovingly described). Their work is full of defeat and other people’s loss, so small pleasures assume ridiculous levels of import; an enthusiastic newbie (Julia Sirna-Frest) rubs the group’s perfectionist (Ugo Chukwu) the wrong way and we worry for her future, since an ejected member of the group (David Greenspan) was cast very far out—all the way back to the prehistoric past, when lunches were more mammoth-forward. In a stacked cast, Sirna-Frest and Jo Mei, who plays the most unflappable of the lawyers, stand out for their, respectively, flustery and chilly comic approaches; Chukwu manages to be charismatic even in quivering breakdown. The director Tara Ahmadinejad keeps the pace high for this snack-size, hour-long show, but you digest it over the next several days, as you remember the real-life details—families torn apart, the advocates’ emotional burnout, the grinding judicial system—served as side dishes alongside the absurd main course.