The Playhouse in the Park made a curious scheduling decision this season, presenting Larissa FastHorse’s The Thanksgiving Play in early springtime. When other theaters pick up this comedy about political correctness, they’ll more than likely produce it in a November time slot when people’s minds are on supposedly long-held traditions.
But FastHorse intended to shake things up and, in fact, to upend those traditions. She’s the first Native American writer to have a script produced at the Playhouse, and her goal with this subject, as stated in a program essay, is to point out that “what is given to me as history is not only missing millions of voices but is blatantly wrong.” So perhaps to underscore some of the cited discrepancies, the first step was to produce the show at a different time of year.
FastHorse carried her intention further by making her play a comedy, which isn’t an easy choice when dealing with a sensitive and serious subject. But The Thanksgiving Play is more than a comedy — it’s a flat-out satire on political correctness gone mad, treated in a way that you might recognize from Saturday Night Live. It’s the story of four caricatured, liberal white people (they call themselves “enlightened white allies”) who intend to create a “devised” script for a junior high school. We see them on the first day of rehearsal as they try to craft a sensitive and appropriate work.
It’s easier said than done. The director is Logan (Jennifer Bareilles), a committed vegan with minimal theater experience. Having fled Los Angeles after seeking acting work for six weeks, she is now doing theater for young people. She’s already riled 300 parents with a production of Eugene O’Neill’s grim and tragic The Iceman Cometh. Her life partner Jaxton (Scott Parkinson) claims to have found his passion as an actor and “yoga dude.” In reality, he’s an amateur street performer with no experience, a self-important slacker. Also inexperienced is Caden (Nat DeWolf), an elementary school teacher and aspiring playwright who has zealously over-researched the subject of Thanksgiving.
Logan has received a grant to hire a Native American actress. Unfortunately Alicia, (Ashley Austin Morris) comes from Hollywood only qualified by a head shot in the style of a Native American, not because of any actual heritage. She’s also a simple-minded, self-centered airhead. Asked to explain how she gets into a role, she says, “I pretend.”
The quartet is a combustible intersection of perspectives, minimal talent and liberal values that results in quite a few hilarious moments. However, the 90-minute play mines this humor over and over, eventually pushing it to a horrifying, bloody extreme. If SNL-styled humor is your thing, you’ll probably love this show; if not, you’ll grow weary before the finale — which is, indeed, a riotous acknowledgment of how difficult it is to meaningfully represent the true history of the holiday.
Demonstrating the challenge of balancing the message, several interpolated songs are performed by the actors — and not in character. The numbers, perhaps from a misguided curriculum manual, are wrongheaded attempts to make light of or ignore the darker aspects of the holiday. Their humor is a notch below the main story. In the program, the Playhouse has included a sober insert about “Land Acknowledgement” indicating tribal locations in 1760. Reference is made (in tiny print) to the heinous, exploitative “Doctrine of Discovery,” and we are offered links to informational websites about Native Americans.
Director Lisa Portes previously staged Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced for the Playhouse, a serious and troubling script about racism and misunderstanding. It’s clear she’s willing to take on tough subject matter, and with her comically talented cast, she offers lots of food for thought and some very funny moments.
Props to designer Brian Sidney Bembridge for creating an environmental “cafetorium” set with harsh fluorescent lighting. Cinderblock walls are festooned with posters about student activities, food and health tips and banners. It’s backed by an amateurish stage with a blond wood floor and a teal-blue stage curtain. Many theatergoers will be transported back to their school days. Some might actually come away enlightened by the message. More, I suspect, will simply be entertained by an amusing clash of odd characters with good intentions.
The Thanksgiving Play, presented by the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, continues through April 21. Tickets and more info: cincyplay.com.
This article appears in Mar 27 – Apr 3, 2019.
