Contemporary life can be smothering sometimes, right? With many of us spending our days tethered to our cellphones and laptops, wouldn't it be nice to live during a time where we weren't bombarded with constant stimulation? Or would it? HotCity explores these possibilities in its current offering, Jordan Harrison's Maple and Vine.
It's night as the lights come up on Katha (Shanara Gabrielle) and Ryu's (Alan C. David) NYC apartment. Katha can't sleep. Not only do they have noisy, inconsiderate neighbors, but Katha can't seem to get work out of her head. She's completely burned out at her publishing job, and the everyday grind is complicated by the fact that she's having a difficult time dealing with a miscarriage she suffered six months earlier. Her husband makes a nice living as a plastic surgeon, but Ryu's long hours at work have become unfulfilling for him as well. One day, after impulsively quitting her job, Katha meets a man named Dean (Chad Morris). He's unassumingly debonair in his suit, tie and hat, and has a friendliness about him that strikes Katha as a little unusual.
