What could be more challenging for the culturally sensitive than to try to reconcile Thanksgiving. We look at it now as a way of giving thanks for all we have in our life, but anyone who grew up in the 60s and 70s knows we were raised to celebrate the Pilgrims landing in America. But what about the people who lived here? Doesn’t Thanksgiving fall in Native American Month? Try balancing both all those issues when putting together a play at an elementary school today and making sure both sides are fairly represented. That’s the situation depicted in Larissa FastHorse’s The Thanksgiving Play, current being performed at the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theatre at the Geffen Playhouse. The show will run through December 6th.
One thing that immediately stands out about The Thanksgiving Play can be found in the program where the details about its setting are listed as: “A high school drama room anywhere but the Los Angeles area.” Somehow I’m betting that sets the tone for the 90-minute show.
In an interview on the Geffen Playhouse website, FastHorse says of her play, “I often call it a comedy within a satire, because it is a satire but the comedic bits are the sugar that helps the medicine go down. The comedy is intentionally placed where it is to help us take a breath and relax — and it’s aimed at everybody. No one escapes.”
FastHorse, who is based in Los Angeles, is the writer of such plays as What Would Crazy Horse Do? and Urban Rez / Native Nation / Lakota Project Trilogy. She collaborated with director Michael John Garcés, who directs The Thanksgiving Play.
The four-person cast features Noah Bean, Alexandra Henrikson, Jeff Marlow and Samantha Sloyan.
The Thanksgiving Play depicts graphic violence, includes gunshots and is not recommended for people under the age of 14. I’m guessing it doesn’t all go well in trying to find the perfect balance in their school play.
For tickets go here.
Main photo: Noah Bean and Samantha Sloyan by Jeff Lorch/Courtesy of the Geffen Playhouse