Natalie Menna (in pink), Brad Fryman and Holly O'Brien. Photos by Jonathan Slaff.

"Hiroshi-Me-Me-Me" is a comedy of obsession by resident playwright Natalie Menna about three people who frequent a coffee shop in Manhattan. The play is an object lesson for modern women on how not to handle yourself in romance, to wit: never think about whether your relationship is worth continuing or not, never tell the other person (or people) how you honestly feel and how you want to move forward, and never to learn from the experience by paying attention to where your feelings come from. Theater for the New City (TNC), which had been Menna's creative home since 2018, presented the play's premier run February 18 to 28, 2024 directed by Roger Hendricks Simon.

Most of the play shows the embers of a short-lived affair between an imaginative woman, Roberta, and the man who is fleeing her, Hiroshi. It's clear that Roberta's self-absorbed delusions have sent both this boyfriend and her best friend, Sarah, running for the door. Roberta's fixation with the ever-elusive Hiroshi dominates all aspects of her life and causes crazy conflicts with her just-jilted BFF. Hiroshi is spinning both of them like a yo-yo in each hand and unforeseen events jeopardize these already all-too complicated relationships. Does Hiroshi deserve all this devotion? As Roberta twists on the line that binds her to this man, the audience gets to savor the demands she lays out to pin him down with. The fun of the comedy is the banter of the three characters and the bittersweet, comic hopelessness of Roberta's obsession.

The piece was acted by Natalie Menna, Brad Fryman and Holly O'Brien. Produced by Robert Greer.

The genius of this play is the revelation that Sara and Hiroshi are just as unreliable and self-centered as Roberta...In Shakespeare, as in this work, the moral sentiment at any given time is more important than the humor….Hiroshi’s peroration toward the end of the play is a supreme and well-written red herring...Roberta is a proxy for the writer - however so humorous - and also the audience. The famous writers' prompt, "Who am I? Who are they? What happened? What changed?" is clearly delineated and answered. -- Jacob Goldbas, Hi! Drama