Mosaic Theater Company’s Precarious by Audrey Brown
Precarious
Writteny by Steph Del Rosso. Directed by Jaki Bradley
Performed at the Atlas Performing Arts Center
From June 4th to June 28th, 2026
Written by Audrey Brown for DITD
What happens when a mother moves in with her daughter?
In the aftermath of the pandemic years, when the reality was the reverse for many young twenty-and thirty-somes, playwright Steph Del Rosso flips the script, forcing climate warrior Vi into her daughter Tillie’s one-bedroom New York apartment that she shares with partner Drew. Chaos and comedy ensue—or rather, a series of chaotic, comedic scenarios that force the watcher into introspection and, at times, existential despair.
Thus sets the scene for Precarious, making its world premiere with the Mosaic Theater Company at the Atlas Performing Arts Center in Washington, D.C. this June. Expertly acted by a three-person ensemble cast, with D.C. area veteran Kimberly Schraf alongside Zoe Walpole and Jonathan Del Palmer, Precarious is just what its title suggests: a story of a small family constantly on the edge of disarray, whether caused by smaller, familial spats or, as is typically the case for mother Vi (Schraf), the impending climate crisis that she thinks she can singlehandedly reverse.
No one is individually responsible for the tension; rather, both Vi and her daughter (Walpole) truly wholeheartedly believe that their stances on the world, particularly on the environment, are well-placed—and they both do have their hearts in the right place. What causes the differences mainly seems to be the generational divide: Vi admits that she’s discarded all the couple’s paper products in favor of a set of Swedish dishcloths that she’s bought on Amazon, underscoring her well-intentioned mindset that has been misplaced in favor of, perhaps, an inflated sense of self-importance and the belief that her own small actions can solve the world’s problems. Tillie, on the other hand, reaches a crescendo of despair in sharing her powerlessness in the face of the same problems that Vi thinks have easy solves—like refusing to fix the air conditioning in a summer heat wave, for one.
The play’s set, beautifully constructed to resemble a cramped New York City apartment (the dialogue, though opening with a thorough and accurate discussion of the difference between the MTA’s 4, 5, 6, and 7 trains, is inconclusive as to where Drew and Tillie reside, besides that it’s not in Flushing Meadows, Queens), remains relatively unchanged throughout the piece. A brief lighting trick illuminates the seemingly translucent living space wall, allowing the audience to just see the movements of Tillie and Drew as they argued loudly in their bedroom. While innovative, the magic of the moment begs a return to a similar situation at least once, but the bedroom view never returns.
Scene changes are similarly simplistic—Del Rosso detailed that of everything in the piece, these were the most dancerly in that they deal with the most complex movements, and are often the chance for brief onstage quick changes. Each is set to the soundtrack of a simple, modern tune interspersed with the sounds of subway trains on tracks or car traffic. There may be a chance to investigate these sound cues deeper and differentiate between the scenes sandwiched between the public transit and traffic noises, but in one viewing, they are short enough to mainly fade into disregard.
The piece’s true standout is the acting itself, framed by the quick-paced dialogue of Del Rosso’s book. Schraf and Walpole parry in arguments that are indistinguishable from real-life mother-daughter spats, and Del Palmer provides the perfect middleman—his facial expressions amidst a piece that is truly centered around the two women are a perfect stand-in for situations where he has less direct interjections to supply. The three move seamlessly among one another both in language and in body: a standout is a scene during which the three are all seen in the living room and shift between perfectly symmetrical triangular positions into off-kilter isosceles shapes as the tensions morph.
The beauty of Precarious comes from its surprises, and there are many—at points, it seems that the characters are hit with every thinkable misfortune to advance the story. But at its core, it is a story deeper than one about the environmental crisis. It’s about motherhood, about being a daughter and a partner, and truthfully about being a human in the midst of sometimes cripplingly overwhelming news about the world’s flaws. The audience laughs as they see Vi share her climate news alerts as though they are notes of trauma she’s received about her own family, but under it all, they feel her pain as she navigates her existence in a world she knows has reached its tipping point, and a relationship with her daughter that’s about to.
Precarious shows at the Atlas Performing Arts Center from June 4th to June 28th, 2026.
Audrey Brown (she/her) (@audrey.e.brown) is a mover and writer native to the D.C. region. While currently working in communications at a nonprofit in D.C., she gained experience in the nonprofit sphere from CityStep, a dance and community engagement organization based in New York City. Audrey spent much of her early life exploring the Washington performance scene, from small dance shows to the National Opera.
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