Alicia Beard, Santry Rush, Brandon Hearnsberger and Faith Fossett in The Thanksgiving Play at 4th Wall Theatre Company.We can all give thanks to 4th Wall Theatre Company for bringing us Larissa FastHorse's wicked satire,The humor is quick and barbed, as it dissects not only the myth of that first Thanksgiving in Plymouth Colony but also the myth of theater storytelling, and who gets to tell the story.
She gathers her friend Jaxton , a street performer and yoga practitioner deluxe; Caden , a sad-sack playwright manqué whose only works have been performed by children, is hired to be the dramaturg ; and the airhead Alicia , an L.A. actress hired by Logan because she believes her to be native American. She's authentic, they rhapsodize, so all three kowtow to her, give her space to be, and make fools of themselves by doing so.
As the rehearsals progress – or digress – events go very knotty, very fast. How can they portray the Indians without an Indian in the cast? That would be red-face. Caden wants to begin the play thousands of years ago with a fire center stage. That's an immediate no from Logan. They improvise the first banquet with pie from the oven and corn on the cob, miming eating like typewriters. Another no. They play a scene with the Indians at the table, then think better of it and make them invisible.
Interspersed with the failed rehearsals are recreations of actual Thanksgiving pageants that have been shown on YouTube or Zoom from schools around the country. These are the most frightening, and where FastHorse dips her pen in bleak irony to explain her play's not-so-subtle subtext. Elementary kids sing about the nine gifts that the Indians “gave” to the Pilgrims, like pumpkins in a patch, teepees, and moccasins, sung to “The Twelve Days of Christmas.