A routine Airbnb booking turns into a battle of wills.
In Anywhere, playwright Michael Ross Albert distills the dark side of the sharing economy into a tight, 60-minute chamber thriller, where transactional politeness and positive review scores are just the opening gambit. Presented by Leroy Street Theatre and One Four One Collective at The Assembly Theatre, the production wastes no time in establishing its unnerving premise, as Joy, an Airbnb host, coaxes her guest Liz into a friendly late-night drink on the last night of her stay. Cordial small talk quickly tilts into an insidious, high-stakes contest for control, as each woman – driven by her own motivations and the assumptions she makes about the other’s position in life – probes, tests, and ultimately destabilizes the other.
Amelia Mielke-O’Grady’s efficient set design supports this dynamic. The cramped grey-walled rental is rendered with lived-in specificity: a small table and chairs, an armchair, a low shelf, toys, and a meaningfully Lego-strewn floor. Its tight quarters seem to close in as the encounter escalates, though they allow the actors just enough space to circle warily and reposition themselves. Less a neutral backdrop than an active pressure point, it tightens around them as control shifts back and forth.
Albert’s lean and precise writing repeatedly wrong-foots the audience, just as we think we understand the rules of engagement. This is a big part of why the play was a 2018 Toronto Fringe Festival’s Patron’s Pick. Under the assured direction of Cass Van Wyck, this production leans into the script’s slipperiness with confidence, anchored by the sharply calibrated performances of Kaitlin Race and Anne van Leeuwen, who are alternating the roles of Joy and Liz from night to night of the run. Their chemistry is immediate. Each listens intently as the other speaks, allowing each conversational pivot to register as a tactical shift. And those shifts are reinforced by the production’s recurring chess motif, which sharpens the play’s central metaphor of strategy, feint, and control. Every question, hesitation, or apparent concession reads as a calculated move, with power passing back and forth.
On the night I attended, Race played the frazzled professional Liz, opposite van Leeuwen’s shifty host Joy. Having previously shared the stage in the Dora Award-nominated Patty Picker, also directed by Van Wyck, the pairing lands with the ease of a well-established partnership. But there is nothing in the performances to suggest these are interchangeable performers toggling roles. Their abundant chemistry suggests instead that each alternation is more likely a recalibration with different beats. This unobtrusive and unusual (not to mention smart) device magnifies the play’s thematic explanation of mistrust and duality. Just like in a game of chess, when players switch sides, the game becomes entirely new – and in this case, it practically begs for a return visit.
Taut, unsettling, and eerily familiar, Anywhere reminds us how tricky and elusive the truth can be, and how quickly civility can fracture when self-interest and control are at stake. And also that it can happen to anyone, at any time, in even the most innocuous-seeming Airbnb.
Anywhere runs through April 2, 2026 at The Assembly Theatre. Tickets are available at theassemblytheatre.com.
© Arpita Ghosal, Sesaya Arts Magazine 2026
