‘Between Two Knees’ seeks to enlighten, amuse

Native American historic satire from writers of ‘Reservation Dogs’ on FX to be staged at Yale Rep

“Between Two Knees,” coming May 12 through June 4 to the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, isn’t just a fresh, irreverent take on underappreciated (or deliberately misrepresented) chapters in American history. Everything about the show and how it was made seems wondrously different.

The play, a satirical look at the past 130 years of Native American history, was created by the Native American comedy team The 1491s.

“It’s a historical drama, but a historical drama as told by the 1491s,” says director Eric Ting, who helped develop the play for its premiere at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2019. “I don’t want to speak for the 1491s, but this is ultimately a story about resilience and perseverance and transcendence. It’s a superhero story. It’s a tall tale. It’s legend and myth and memory. It’s about the sort of youth we remember as opposed to the youth we actually live, and it’s about the legacy of trauma and about the tools that we have at our disposal to persevere. The big tool, as far as the play is concerned, is comedy and the ability to laugh at it.

“When I first read it, I was struck by how heartfelt it was,” Ting continues, “and by the radical comedy. It’s deep subversion, a subversion of all the things we find comfort in, and it’s asking us to lean into our discomfort and to learn to laugh at it. There’s this notion of taking existing colonial structures and subverting them. The theater is one of them. In a way, it’s a celebration of the theater, but a celebration in the sense that we’re subverting a lot of the tropes we associate with theater.”

“Between Two Knees,” and the five members of The 1491s, figure prominently in a book written around the same time: “We Had a Little Real Estate Problem: The Unheralded Story of Native Americans & Comedy” by Kliph Nesteroff. The book, which covers major Native American comedians from Will Rogers to Charlie Hill, also covers contemporary acts from tribal nations that are finding new ways to establish themselves in the entertainment industry.

“What is a traditional path for a comedian?,” Bobby Wilson of The 1491s pondered in a phone chat with the Courant last week. “Just using the word ‘traditional’ is so funny, because in the context of Indians it means something entirely different. So does our pathway into what it is we all do. The camera has existed for over 100 years now, and only in the past two years have there been any TV shows that are produced by, written by, directed by Indians themselves. It’s a bit overdue, but a lot of this is also about access. The only reason that OSF even knew about what we did was Youtube, our ability as a crew to put work out as a collective on free media.”

The play is described by Nesteroff in his book as, “The story of Native America from the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890 to the armed standoff between the FBI and AIM at Wounded Knee in 1973.”

Ting says “Between Two Knees” is notable for its “wild irreverence and really deep soul. No one is free from the piercing eye of this play.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Wilson says. “Even ourselves. That’s the school of comedy we’ve come from, to take a critical look at ourselves and not take ourselves too seriously.”

To say that Oregon Shakespeare Festival commissioned “Between Two Knees” is understating the case. The theater’s then-artistic director Bill Rauch encouraged The 1491s to write a play, despite their own skepticism and their total lack of experience with how plays are created and staged.

“We were upfront with them, and they said, ‘Don’t worry about it, you’ll be fine,’ ” Wilson says. “We watched all the shows they had for a whole season. We really immersed ourselves. Then they introduced us to Eric.”

Bringing in Ting to direct “Between Two Knees” was also Rauch’s idea. Ting is well known to Connecticut theatergoers for his decade as associate artistic director at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven. The director, who is Chinese-american and grew up in West Virginia, says he expressed reservations about having a non-native American director on the project.

“I was struck by was that it was a native story. So when I talked to Bill the next time I said ‘Are you sure I’m the right director for this, because I am not native.’ Bill said, ‘I hear you, I appreciate that, but will you at least meet with the guys?’ We all met in Ashland, and I remember saying the same thing, and they all looked at me and said ‘Well, you know what? There’s five of us and one of you so when it comes down to it, we’re gonna win.’ ”

In Ashland, rewrites were happening while the show was already being performed. At Yale Rep, the 1491s can’t even be there in person for rehearsals and may even miss opening night, having to hold daily Zoom calls instead. The show, originally planned for the Rep two years ago and postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, is happening just as The 1491s are in Tulsa, Oklahoma filming a TV series one of them co-created and the others are writing for or acting in.

‘We’re all writing and performing in ‘Reservation Dogs’ season two now,” Wilson says. The FX series was created by Sterlin Harjo of The 1491s with comedy titan Taika Waititi of “Jojo Rabbit,” “What We Do in the Shadows” and “Our Flag Means Death” fame. It follows four indigenous teens trying to get out of the doldrums of Oklahoma.

The wrap day for “Reservation Dogs” is the same weekend “Between Two Knees” ends its run at Yale Rep. Wilson says he would like to visit New Haven, but “it is so [expletive] hard to fly anywhere from Tulsa. To go from a tiny city to a tiny city and then drive to a tiny town is bananas.” Wilson last visited New Haven in 2014 with fellow 1491s member Thomas Ryan Redcorn to paint two murals for the Yale University Native American Student Center.

Besides Wilson, Redcorn and Harjo, the other founding members of The 1491s are Dallas Goldtooth and Migizi Pensoneau.

Ting calls the Rep rendition of “Between Two Knees” a new production but also an old production.

“One of the nice things this time around is that at OSF we did not have the final scene of the play until we were well into technical rehearsals. The story of this play at Ashland is that we started rehearsals with an incomplete play, then we started tech with an incomplete play, and arguably we opened the show with an incomplete play.

And, you know, the guys write by consensus, so there would be complete rewrites of whole scenes. It had this glorious chaos. This time around, at Yale, they’ve given this whole rich rehearsal process. We come to it this time knowing the story that we’re telling.”

Other theaters have expressed interest in “Between Two Knees,” and the play is likely to have a future beyond Yale.

Ting notes that, though the writers are not there in person, they are in constant contact. Also, “there’s a photo of the 1491s hanging in our rehearsal hall, basically right above my shoulder, so I can be reminded of the guys and say, ‘Would they do this? No, they wouldn’t,’ and move on.”

Now that they’re writing plays and TV shows, will The 1491s ever get back onstage as a comedy troupe?

“Last time we performed was five dudes with a stinky bag full of props that everyone refused to wash,” Wilson laughs.

“You shouldn’t knock that! Don’t knock that!,” Ting shouts. “That’s old school!”

“I don’t knock that,” he responds. “But we’re spoiled now with trailers full of props and costumes. It’s hard to go back.”

”Between Two Knees” by The 1491s, directed by Eric Ting, runs May 12 to 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 21 and 28 and June 4 and a Wednesday matinee at 2 p.m. on June 1. No Tuesday performance on May 24. $10-$65. yalerep.org.