LOS ANGELES, CA. - DECEMBER 2, 2009: Kirsten Potter (CQ) as Captain Catherine Siler (CQ) talks with Justin Rain as the Ghost of Birdsong during a dress rehearsal of Palestine, New Mexico at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles on December 2, 2009. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
PALESTINE, NEW MEXICO
by Trevor Thomas – EdgeLosAngeles
“Nobody’s happy here. Nobody knows who they are.” So says one character in Richard Montoya’s Palestine, New Mexico now onstage at the Mark Taper Forum.
Amen to that.
Army Captain Catherine Siler (Kirsten Potter) is an unwelcome presence on the New Mexico reservation shared by the Suarez and Birdsong clans. She has come to deliver a letter to the Birdsong chief (Russell Means) from his son Ray Ray who perished during an ambush in Afghanistan.
She immediately runs into trouble as nobody wants her around stirring up trouble. While she’s negotiating her visa with the locals, the captain learns of the ongoing civil war between the two neighboring tribes, occasioned by the fact that the Suarez clan is – get ready for it – Jewish.
Oy.
Despite some absolutely terrific scenic and lighting/projection design (Rachel Hauck and Alexander V. Nichols, respectively) and some well-crafted comic dialogue by Montoya (who also portrays the character Top Hat), Palestine, New Mexico is a muddle.
Montoya attempts to draw parallels between the tribes of New Mexico and the tribes of Afghanistan, between the deserts of the two places, and of course argues for the shared humanity of all mankind (except for Halliburton and Lou Dobbs). These are hardly groundbreaking sentiments, and the one truly original element in this story – Jewish Amerindians – is so tortured it seems, dare one say, patronizing.
Potter is singularly ineffective in her role. Her tiny voice swallowed up by the theater, her movements exaggerated and stagey, her emotions are exponentially too raw and womanly; one categorically rejects the notion that fighting men would have gone into battle under her command.
Means and Montoya do good work onstage, but it is Geraldine Kearns who triumphs as Maria 15, the tribal shaman. Bringing robustness to her role and possessing a compelling stage presence, her natural acting stands out starkly against a backdrop of desultory blocking and self-conscious posturing.
Tribal characters include Bronson (Ric Salinas), Farmer (Herbert Siguenza), Dakotah (Julia Jones) and assorted minor players. Director Lisa Peterson has them glower and menace and look soulfully into the heavens at the sound of the eagle screaming just like real Hollywood Indians. It’s condescending on almost every level.
Marred by predictable sprinklings of progressive platitude and anti-white racism – the salt and pepper of modern ethnocentric drama – Palestine, New Mexico employs a majestic locale and tradition to articulate fairly pedestrian themes. In so doing, the playwright subjects his material to a Procrustean bed of improbability that does not so much stretch the imagination as draw and quarter it.
For once I am in near-perfect sync with a review. Trevor Thomas saw and heard what I did, save for the fact I felt the play was less patronizing to Jews than it was borderline anti-Semitic. Especially when one tough tribal warrior exclaims with forlorn near the end of the play “I’m Jewish.” Yes, it got a laugh…as did a number of the fish-out-of-water Jewish-cultural and Hebrew language references. And yes, I laughed at some, too…but in the end the payoff was treated as a joke, rather than a significant event in need of exploration. Perhaps a half hour more and a second act to really delve into what could be a substantial and interesting element would help.
I’ve heard a good session of power yoga will help shake off that “near perfect synch with a review” thing, Rich. Don’t want that to linger…