Dark and unpredictably hilarious
Even before “Between Two Knees” starts, it is already making you laugh loud, think hard and question your values.
This show has the funniest pre-show announcements, and not in the usual funny voice or “unwrap your candy now” speech. The “no photography allowed” warning mocks the audience’s misunderstandings of Native American culture (“photographs take a piece of your soul”) and the now-ubiquitous explanation that theaters exist on land stolen from Native communities descends into literal “blah blah blah,” saying that audiences never listen to it so the company has offered a map in the program showing who originally cared for all the land in Connecticut.
Prepare to be challenged, confronted, enlightened, shamed and, above all, amused.
“Between Two Knees” is a weighty, witty, mad dash through some abominable, almost unimaginable tragedies of American history. One where people are massacred for the land they live on or sometimes for no good reason at all. The play is bookended by the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890 and the American Indian Movement’s occupation of Wounded Knee, which led to armed altercations with the federal government in 1973. A lot happens in between, including a few wars.
The laughs are constant and constantly uncomfortable. White guilt is a running theme. So are abuse of power, racism and classism. Organized religion is attacked. So is the military.
“Between Two Knees” was originally produced three years ago by comedy troupe The 1491s at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, with the same director and much of the same cast,but this is such a consummate Yale Rep-type show that it’s very difficult to believe it wasn’t created here. It has well-crafted jokes, well-researched history, costumes that are not just practical (since each cast member makes dozens of costume changes) but really something to look at, props that makes jokes funnier, projections that transport the action into other worlds, an old-fashioned vaudeville stage outlined with giant Native caricatures like the Cleveland Indians mascot and the Land-o-lakes woman and rigorous attention to every line, every joke, historical note and cry of anguish as another character is killed.
This play has five writers: Ryan Redcorn, Sterlin Harjo, Dallas Goldtooth, Migizi Pensoneau and Bobby Wilson. None of them appear in the show as performers because they are all currently shooting the second season of “Reservation Dogs,” a TV series Harjo co-created for the FX network.
So many hands on the script means that jokes have been finetuned for maximum impact. The many different playing styles are distinct and refined and work on their own terms.
Director Eric Ting helmed some amazing productions at the Long Wharf Theatre when he was the associate artistic director there from 200415, but almost nothing that could be called comedy. Here, Ting proved not just as versatile as The 1491s, but a genuine team player who can find the heart of each scene.
At two-and-a-half hours, “Between Two Knees” takes all the time it needs to tell a multi-generational story about a Native American family, offering critical retellings of massacres and injustices. In the first half, there is a brief game show parody and a vaudeville comedy routine, both of which are simple and direct and also funny and deceptive. Layered light and dark routines anchor the second half, including a monologue about decades of degradation and distrust, told in a stand-up comedy style, and a family melodrama that ends with smoldering bodies.
Everyone in the cast — seven Native American actors and one Chinese one (so they can make a joke about “You know how hard it was to cast this?”) — has a range seldom required of performers in a single show. They clown, they die, they dance and they engage in long stage battles. One of them (Justin Gauthier) is the show’s narrator named Larry who convincingly falls into a dozen other characters all also named Larry. Several players dazzle, including Shaun Taylor-corbett, who plays an evil priest as well as one of the play’s big heroes, William Wolf, Rachel Crowl, who sings, plays piano and gets some of the biggest laughs of the night as a 1960s New Age minister, and Sheila Tousey, the funniest wounded mother ever.
As impressive as individual characterizations are, what’s most impressive is how well everyone works together, especially with hyper shifts in mood and style.
There’s a long tradition of thought-provoking, dark, topical and funny ensemble shows at Yale Rep. “Between Two Knees” raises the stakes and brings the house down.
”Between Two Knees” by The 1491s, directed by Eric Ting, runs through June 4 at the Yale Repertory Theatre, 1120 Chapel St., New Haven. Performances are Tuesday through Saturday at 8 p.m., with Saturday matinees at 2 p.m. on
May 28 and June 4 and a Wednesday matinee at 2 p.m. on June 1. $10-$65. yalerep.org.