Review: ‘Thanksgiving Play’ in San Jose mocks our woke world

The four white artists tasked with putting on a culturally sensitive theatrical masterpiece for kids that honors both Native Americans and the thorny holiday of Thanksgiving seem to be off to a rip-roaring start.

Wokeness and performative gestures are in full swing, affirming finger snaps coming in right on time. Critically, to stay in compliance with the grant that project director Logan received leads to these artists crafting historically “accurate” scenes that feature a joyful Catholic mass in Florida, pineapples as an appetizer and a ton of respect between the pilgrims and Native Americans. Watching the crafting of such silliness among these characters might suggest a scene where the pilgrims and Natives watch the Dallas Cowboys arm-in-arm isn’t that far away.

The City Lights Theater Company production of Larissa FastHorse’s “The Thanksgiving Play,” is 90 minutes of consecutive cringe with lots of laughs interspersed throughout, illuminating the agency and powerful voice of its author. The play’s humor is in the characters’ attempts to be didactic in nature, with reactions to varying facts about Thanksgiving ranging anywhere from “not sure that is correct” to “did you just say that?”

These lily-white theater people are feeling frisky about their 45-minute opus. Artistic integrity must not be compromised — accuracy and truth, however messy, must be reckoned with. Yet, there are a whole lot of scenes on the horizon that showcase the normal and happy Thanksgiving holiday in November that everyone knows and loves. Can’t have too much bummer on our proverbial plates. There are kids in the audience, after all.

However, one teeny-tiny problem threatens the entire project; has anyone thought to get some advice from, and stay with me here, an actual Native American person? Maybe a few? Trying to craft something about Native Americans without centering a Native American voice keeps these well-meaning stuck in the performative phase of their supposed activism.

The four-person play focuses on Logan (Caitlin Gjerdrum), an earnest soul desperate to craft high art at her high school, with all the requisite Broadway posters adorning her classroom wall. She is facing the heat of 300 parents who signed a petition for her removal, and she desperately needs a victory. Her partner in both life and art is Jaxton (Keenan Flagg), a professional actor by definition, having gotten paid for a gig at a farmer’s market.

Getting paid for any gig is the dream of new actor Caden (Bryan Moriarty), an elementary school teacher who is madly in love with the work of Jaxton and the direction of Logan. This gig is a dream job for Caden, the admiration for his new collaborators cemented by watching Jaxton in the “Let’s Learn!” series, a show he saw at another elementary school, taking a personal day off to do so. And Caden truly believes Logan gets a bad rap for one of her more unfortunate directing projects, a Eugene O’Neill play that focuses on alcoholics who live in a flop house. “‘The Iceman Cometh’ was made so much more relevant with 15-year-olds,” he opines.

Finally, there is the versatile Los Angeles actor Alicia (Sarah Dove), whose versatility is defined by the roles she can take on based on her look at any given time — Asian, Native, whatever — which is reflected in her multiple headshots. The actual talent deficit she possesses doesn’t matter all that much.

Director Roneet Aliza Rahamim is clear in how she structures the acting performances, leaning into the goofy nature and specific style of FastHorse’s sharply satirical dialogue, although the performances sometimes miss their targets. Rahamim has sharply crafted characters who work hard to out-ally each other, people who justify their casting choices in some quizzical ways.

Ron Gasparinetti’s scenic design is vast and full of touches that give the feel of a drama room — acting blocks and random scripts scattered about. And the sound design of George Psarras is an effective hit parade of very strange, and sometimes macabre, actual Thanksgiving tunes.

Where the play finds its power is in how FastHorse keenly explores the concept of erasure through humorous satire. For so long, marginalized groups were forbidden to tell their own authentic stories, leading to damaging portrayals that constructed a false narrative that elevated colonialism while diminishing the indigenous people.

Ultimately, these artists, however badly they want to bring honor to the Native Americans with their very earnest production, make the smartest decision, a powerful lesson from FastHorse that culminates in a rather breathtaking denouement.

Sometimes, when one is not sure what to say, saying nothing is the best option.

David John Chávez is chair of the American Theatre Critics Association and served as a juror for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Twitter: @davidjchavez.