There’s more than 1 way to fight the power
TheatreFirst show ‘Between Us’ examines many forms of activism
Activism comes in many forms. TheatreFirst’s new show “Between Us” offers a powerful sampling of the very different ways that people try to stand up for what’s right.
Seven solo pieces commissioned for this show are divided into two programs rotating in repertory. Each piece opens with a video montage (by Kristoffer Barrera, Ben Euphrat and Brendan West) setting the scene with clips about the historical event in question.
Rivetingly performed by Dezi Solèy and directed by Margo Hall, Brit Frazier’s “Laveau” kicks off Program A with a spellbinding encounter with New Orleans “Voodoo Queen” Marie Laveau. Solèy’s commanding Laveau tells us all about herself and her subversive efforts to liberate “black bodies” in the antebellum South in lushly poetic language as she goes about her ritual business.
Written and directed by Jeffrey Lo, “7 Fingers” is a compelling account of Larry Itliong’s attempts to get Filipino and Mexican grape workers to work together to spark the Delano grape strike. Mike Sagun exudes brash and infectious confidence as the forceful Itliong.
Katie May’s “Pussy Hat” depicts a more humble sort of activism. An Idaho woman accustomed to keeping her opinions to herself is incensed by the last election to protest in the Women’s March. Giddy at actually taking a stand for the first time, she’s frustrated to find her political awakening challenged as being rooted in privilege. Played with endearing excitement and sympathetic befuddlement by Jennie Brick in Phoebe Moyer’s staging, the woman talks herself in circles as she tries to challenge her own reactions and assumptions.
Directed by Elizabeth Carter, Cleavon Smith’s “Just One Day” hinges on simpler action still — the question of whether to stay home on the first federally recognized Martin Luther King Jr. Day, when the boss says he’ll fire anyone who doesn’t show up for work. Sam Jackson plays a young African-American garment worker pacing around arguing with herself as she fumes about her co-workers caving so easily. This play meanders and spins its wheels a bit, as arguments with one’s self tend to do, but it makes some sharp points along the way.
Program B is more uneven. Written and directed by Noelle Viñas, “La Profesora” depicts a present-day professor (earnest Virginia Blanco) haunted by what happened to Nibia Sabalsagaray, a Uruguayan professor tortured and killed by government forces in 1974 for her communist beliefs, but the play takes the form of a lecture that’s slow and repetitive despite the disturbing subject matter.
There’s also a lot of repetition in Jeanne Sakata’s “Turning the Page,” about the quest of Aiko HerzigYoshinaga to gain redress for Japanese-Americans imprisoned in internment camps during World War II. Fortunately, Aiko’s progress from scared and bewildered teenager to tirelessly driven researcher remains compelling throughout as portrayed by Heidi Kobara and staged by Jeffrey Lo.
“The Racket” is a dizzying, fragmented narrative about Smedley Butler, a Marine major general who became a vocal critic of exploitative U.S. foreign policy, and who exposed a conspiracy to organize a military coup to overthrow FDR. Written by brothers James Tracy and TheatreFirst artistic facilitator Jon Tracy and directed by Robert Parsons, it’s a nightmarish narrative pingponging Smedley back and forth in time as he tries to tell his story to future generations. It’s unclear both to him and the viewer whether this is intended as some kind of afterlife punishment, but Aaron Murphy’s frantic Smedley is clearly being put through the wringer.
The pieces don’t fit together neatly into a coherent whole, but that’s the nature of activism. Any one movement is made up a chaotic mass of different agendas that only look unified from a distance. This diverse cross section of people working on different issues to do their small or large part to make the world a better place is necessarily more fragmented still.