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WINDY CITY TIMES
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Maple and Vine
THEATER REVIEW
by Mary Shen Barnidge 2011-11-09
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This article shared 2988 times since Wed Nov 9, 2011
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Playwright: Jordan Harrison. At: Next Theatre at the Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes Ave., Evanston. Phone: 847-475-1875; $25-$40. Runs through: Dec. 4
The purpose behind re-enactment societies is nostalgia for idealized adventurepast (Renaissance faires), present (paintball) or future (assorted LARPs, or live-action role plays)where self-styled heroes easily topple adversaries. The purpose behind cloistered religious sects is the simplicity that comes of a reduced universe. The purpose behind cults is the employment of both these factors toward manipulative control over their participants. Jordan Harrison's fable proposes a full-immersion fantasy experience in a community replicating America in 1955, featuring occupations, homes (midwestern subdivision, natch) and social customs reflecting period accuracy to the smallest detail.
It's not difficult to understand why Katha and Ryu Nakata find this prospect attractive: both are stressed by high-powered jobs, the former depressed after a miscarriage, the latter hoping for a change to restore procreative urges. More puzzling are the impulses motivating two homosexual men and their girl-pal to recast themselves as, respectively, a down-low lover, a closeted husband and his clueless wife. "It was too easy," one of them says of the tolerant 2000s, as he eagerly anticipates the risk of make-believe gay-bashings.
Harrison may fancy that he is presenting an unbiased view of what he regards as history sufficiently distant to lend itself to romance. Those with first-hand recollections of the age under superficial scrutiny, however, will be nagged by questions: Does time continue in this retreat, 1955 giving way to 1956 ad perpetuam? Do regional or federal statutes determine the legality of local jurisprudence? How long will Ryu embrace the racial prejudice engendered by his Japanese ancestry? Why does nobody object when the Authenticity Committee chairwoman calls for a ban on birth control (meaning the pillcuriously, diaphragms are never mentioned)?
Harrison would have us believe that there are a significant number of citizens so bored with their privileged lives that they seek to play-act prejudice, injustice and repressionwithout sacrificing any of their privileges, of course. (It comes as no surprise that this artificial environment has no slums or ghettos and few ethnic minorities; sentimentalizing lynch law and anti-semitism is a tough sell.) Playgoers as naive as Katha and Ryu may find fodder for discussion in Next Theatre's provocatively premised production, but even a modicum of credulity is enough to sabotage the suspension of disbelief necessary to buy into Harrison's fuzzy thesis. |
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This article shared 2988 times since Wed Nov 9, 2011
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