The Thanksgiving Play at CapStage closes on July 22nd.
See it before then, please.
I was able to see it last night. I loved this play, but what struck me most was the audience’s laughter. I have never heard more hearty, desperately-trying-to-catch-a-breath belly laughs in a theatre before.
(Was the spelling of “theatre” correct there? It’s a big debate, but I’ll have to explain it later.)
The humor comes from many angles, intersecting in a strongly directed piece, with great comic timing, about race, gender, theatre, voice, agency, shopping habits, eating habits, stress, simplicity, collaborative theatre (insert shudder of recognition from my acting days), education, selfies, and performativity.
The Thanksgiving Play is about a school drama teacher trying to construct a culturally relevant play about Thanksgiving in a way that will both appeal to our post-post racial, #metoo time and honor Native Americans.
Except they don’t have any Native Americans.
This is a beautiful, biting, clever satire. You’re watching a cast of white actors (playing a cast of white actors) talk about the problem of the invisibility of Native Americans, as they try to construct a play about Thanksgiving with no Native Americans. If this weren’t meta and weren’t written by a Native American playwright, we would be in trouble.
But it is and it is, so laugh away.
If I had more time this month, I’d see it again.
Author: Larissa FastHorse
Director: Michael Stevenson
The awesome cast: Gabby Battista, Cassidy Brown, Jouni Kirjola (we’re probably related, in the way that all Finnish Americans are), Jennifer Le Blanc.
