If there is anything worse than the blind acceptance of false mythology as fact, it probably has to be the self-congratulatory, approval-seeking social performance that comes from publicly rejecting that mythology.
At least, that’s the idea behind the premise of Larissa FastHorse’s contemporary new satire, The Thanksgiving Play, that opened on Friday evening at Flying Anvil Theatre. At the base of its comedy is the false, twisted, and whitewashed tale of Pilgrims and Native Americans collaborating on a feast that has become white America’s feel-good “story of Thanksgiving.” FastHorse goes further, though, lambasting the lame attempts to assuage the mythology-rejecting white guilt with virtue-signaling buzzwords and showcase diversity. Along the way, she also takes shots at theatre practitioners who confuse woke-ness with progress in theatrical diversity. Admittedly, these are some pretty broad targets; Fasthorse, a member of the Sicangu Lakota nation, makes an entertaining go of it all by neatly revealing the twisted logic that traditionally surrounds myths.
Logan (Amber Collins Crane) is the drama teacher at Jefferson High in an un-named American town, who has undertaken the task of producing—or “devising”— a play on the topic of Thanksgiving that is not only historically accurate and culturally sensitive, but one that will work for Native American Heritage month. Logan, though, has her own conflicts on a number of fronts. As a vegan, she wrestles with the thought of turkey on the Thanksgiving table. As a teacher, she wrestles with her misjudgments, including the recent misguided school production of The Iceman Cometh that has led to a parents’ petition calling for her removal.
Working with Logan on the play is her boyfriend, Jaxton (David Hutto, Jr.), a self-described “actor/yoga dude” and “vegan-ally” who comically defines the concept of “performative wokeness.” Almost to the point of caricature, Jaxton vacillates on every imaginable topic, and is often left with laughable, if not mutually exclusive, options for diversity. Logan and Jaxton are joined by Caden (Mitch Moore), an elementary school history teacher and wannabe playwright, whose interest in historical accuracy overwhelms his sense of what is tolerable in theatre, especially to bored high school students.
Logan has also hired a former Los Angeles actress, Alicia (Celeste Pelletier) who she believes is a Native American, basing the selection solely on a made-up headshot. Alicia, as it turns out, is not an indigenous person, but one—in her “simplicity”— that sees nothing wrong with portraying a wide array of ethnic characters. This includes her apparent big moment, a stint as an understudy to Princess Jasmine at Disney.
The group is then left to ponder the un-ponderable with illogical logic. Just how do you not offend Native Americans with four white actors presenting a play that purports to represent Native Americans without any involvement of the latter? For Alicia, the quintessential dim bulb, the answer is simple: she’s an “actress.” For the others, it’s not so simple.
What makes all this character conflict work are the four distinctive performances, helped along by a sharply individual sculpting by director David Ratliff. Crane gives her Logan an all too believable vulnerability. Hutto has created a pretzel-like logic delivery for Jaxton that is a joy to follow. Moore’s Caden is beautifully vulnerable in his own way, obviously lonely for female companionship and desperate to be taken seriously as a writer. Pelletier is masterful as the ambition-less Alicia, who strangely seems quite matter-of-fact about her loss of Los Angeles as a career.
FastHorse has placed her most sharply cutting satire in between-scene reveals that that director Ratliff has chosen to do by way of YouTube-like video clips. These clips portray teachers’ suggestions for lesson plans on the Thanksgiving festivities that highlight the misconceptions and deliberate inaccuracies that accompany the holiday. Some of these deliver a snicker, while others are definitely cringeworthy.
While the weight of tradition is heavy with our Thanksgiving, The Thanksgiving Play gives one plenty to laugh at, and to consider. Those in the Flying Anvil audience may find themselves laughing, and then catching themselves as they grasp the issue at hand. And perhaps that’s a good thing.
The Thanksgiving Play by Larissa FastHorse
Flying Anvil Theatre, 1300 Rocky Hill Road
Directed by David Ratliff, with Amber Collins Crane, David Hutto, Jr., Mitch Moore, and Celeste Pelletier
Runs through November 28
https://www.flyinganviltheatre.com
