Politics. The thing that most of us think is rude to talk about at the dinner table doesn’t just happen in the vaulted halls of a domed building in our nation’s Capital. Politics is everywhere, all the time. Filling a glass with fresh water can be a political act. Reading a book can be transgressive, as can choosing to love or hate someone. Read on for our curated selection of plays this month that dive headfirst into the complicated world of politics.
On Right Now
cullud wattah, Mosaic Theater Company
Showing April 3 – April 27
mosaictheater.org
Did you know that one in four people across the world don’t have access to safe, clean drinking water? For the residents of Flint (one of the most densely populated cities in Michigan), this startling statistic became real when in 2014 the lifegiving fluid flowing from their faucets suddenly turned toxic.
Written by Susan Smith Blackburn Prize winner Erika Dickerson-Despenza, cullud wattah is an emotional exploration of the effects of the Flint water crisis on three generations of an African American family. Like many rivers flowing through the hearts of American industrial cities, the Flint River was always plagued by pollution and an ambivalent local government allowing factory waste to poison its waters. A state-employed “efficiency manager,” attempting to mitigate the lingering effects of the economic downturn of the 1980s, shifted the city’s water supply from the local purification plant to the Flint River, with no consultation or feasibility studies. The results were and are catastrophic: For 18 months, residents broke out in rashes and lost hair and weight while a generation of kids faced developmental and neural issues. The Flint water crisis was a loaded gun aimed directly at the country’s future.
“Flint is like the Rodney King of environmental justice,” explains director Danielle A. Drakes, referring to the brutal assault of King by Los Angeles police in 1991 that precipitated weeks of protests and violence in that city. “That was the first real-time, videoed crisis. Black men and women under attack. This is just as much of an indictment. We’re watching folks being impacted and watching the people responsible walk away. People are still using bottled water daily.” Ezinélia Baba plays Plum, with Kelly Renee Armstrong as Marion, Lizan Mitchell as Big Ma, Khalia Muhammad as Reesee and Andreá Bellamore as Ainee, a multi-generational family of strong Black women fighting to live, love and thrive in a city seemingly determined to kill them. Drakes says she views herself as an “artistic Doula.” The prose, movement and actors are the catalysts that drive the narrative, while she provides a capable pair of hands that deliver the message to the audience. “This is an ensemble-driven play. The playwright suggests how the show should go. (Dickerson Despenza’s) stage directions aren’t parenthetical. They’re part of the poetry of the text.”
cullud wattah finds resonance in the contexts of Black Lives Matter and #ICantBreathe, at a time when the foundations of social justice are being shaken. “What’s important about doing this play now is it’s still fresh. It’s an indictment of the justice that was done (in Flint).” Drakes says. “The way the play moves is a ritual. The playwright asks us to spend some time on what our intentions are in the world and society. It begs the audience to move and my job is to facilitate the audience being moved to action.”
Photo by Makela Yepez.
In the Spotlight
Fake It Until You Make It, Arena Stage
Showing April 3 – May 4
arenastage.org
The non-profit environment is cut-throat. Allegiances and loyalty – both personal and professional – are tested, and betrayal in the name of funding is as common in the workplace as water cooler humor. This is the world created by Sicangu Lakota playwright and choreographer Larissa Fasthorse in her play Fake It Until You Make It at Arena Stage this month.
It’s not all seriousness though. There’s a good deal of laughs and ridiculousness in Fasthorse’s farcical tale of rivalry between two competing not-for-profits working to represent the rights of Native Americans, being produced in association with LA’s Center Theatre Group and directed by Michael John Garcés. There’s a lot that Fasthorse and Garcés (frequent collaborators on plays focused on and in Native American communities) manage to squeeze into 80 minutes of action: A rivalry between River (played by Amy Brenneman) and Wynona (Shyla Lefner) and their co-workers, a cat in peril, a grant up for grabs, an invasive species of plant and a love affair. All the action is set against a backdrop of shifting identity politics signified by pops of color and texture that speaks to the complexity of what it means to be a contemporary Native American.
In the current storm of American politics, where cracking a joke about racial or ethnic affiliation is like walking on eggshells, Fasthorse and Garcés ride out the danger irably. “The play goes pretty hard in problematizing those issues.” Garcés says. “It doesn’t lead to easy answers either. (Fasthorse) is doing what the best satirists do: Leave people in a place of questioning and uncertainty so that they can really grapple with the issue.” Garcés says that he and Fasthorse create work that depicts Native people as active participants in and creators of their own joy. “We wanted to reflect that in this play. Humor is such a huge part of how indigenous folk have resisted and survived for centuries. When Larissa and I work in these communities, people ask for humor on stage. They don’t want a tragedy fest. They want it to be about serious things but they want it to be funny.”
Special Mention
Bad Books, Round House Theatre
Showing April 2 – April 27
roundhousetheatre.org
In the early Spring of 2022, Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill allowing ‘objectionable’ books to be pulled from school library shelves. 2024 saw a record number of texts labelled undesirable: 10,000 in total across the nation. Bad Books – Sharyn Rothstein’s new play at Round House Theater being debuted across the country as part of the National New Play Network’s Rolling World Premiere – tackles the topic of censorship through a battle of wits between a mother and a librarian.
Rothstein writes regularly for TV and film. As the child of immigrants, she’s compelled by stories that highlight discrimination, prejudice and freedom of people and ideas. “I started writing Bad Books a few years ago, and it feels even more relevant today, which is always a good thing for a playwright but does also speak to the current moment.” Directed by Ryan Rilette and featuring Holly Twyford (‘The Mother’) and Kate Eastwood Norris (‘The Librarian/Editor/Manager’), Rothstein, who is a mom herself, explores the anxieties involved in raising children and wanting to protect them while still permitting them to think for themselves. “I purposely didn’t set it in a specific place and I didn’t give the characters names.” Rothstein explains. “There’s a parable quality to the play. Every theater that’s producing it is doing research on local initiatives to ban books. There’s talk about making this feel as local as possible which isn’t hard to do because we’ve seen book banning discussions all over the country.”
Bad Books has a serious message for audiences, Rothstein says, but it also invites us to laugh at the messiness of being human. “The play makes a plea for talking to each other as people that are united in wanting what’s best for our kids and communities. Maybe that sounds idealistic, but I think it’s the only way forward.”
