Cat’s-Paw

Reviewed by Martίn Hernández
Stephanie Feury Studio Theatre
Through May 21

Updated from its original mid-1980s timeframe, playwright William Mastrosimone’s portrait of a militant environmental activist harbors anachronisms given the modern state of the movement. Streamlined from two acts to one, the truncated version attempts to cram Mastrosimone’s provocative message into a shortened format. The result is a thoughtful but scattershot production of the author’s cautionary tale of how the fight for environmental justice could easily turn violent if its calls are not met by effective government action.

Earth Now!, a radical underground ecological group, is led by the emblematically named Victor (Andy Harold). In his struggle to force corporate polluters and their U.S. government lackeys to halt their assault on Mother Earth, Victor and his “soldiers” — Cathy (Meg Ruddy) and another unseen recruit — have kidnapped EPA official David Darling (Jeffrey R. Newman) and famed TV news journalist Jessica Lyons (Mo Feldman). They’ve also car-bombed the U.S. Capitol, which killed twelve Senators and dozens of innocent victims.

Ensconced in a claustrophobic Washington D.C. basement, with C-4 explosives mounted on the walls as self-destruct mechanisms, Victor wants Jessica to interview him to spread his message — but what ensues instead is a battle of wits and ideology between them. A smug mix of Ralph Nader and Timothy McVeigh, Victor delivers turgid slogans masked as political thought — “doubt is for philosophers, not warriors” — while Jessica’s appeals to morality belie her own complicity in the mainstream media’s voracious appetite for profits, seasoned with bloodied bodies that folks like Victor are happy to provide.

Victor makes convincing arguments about the corporate corruption of government, from elected officials to regulatory agencies to law enforcement. But with Earth Now!’s demands for a massive clean-up of contaminated drinking water falling on deaf ears, he feels the group’s tactics must now match those of the hypocritical U.S. government, the greatest purveyor of violence at home and abroad. One person’s eco-terrorist, however, is another’s eco-warrior, and perhaps Victor is not the psychopath authorities and the press paint him out to be, as more is revealed about his journey to this moment.

The small performing space and director Tony Denison’s nimble staging heightens the tension, as does the precise and uncredited set design, filled with assorted weapons of war. Newman is convincing as a mild-mannered, mid-level bureaucrat, doing his best at a thankless job. Ruddy is sympathetic as the naïve Cathy, who has chosen drastic action to defend the animals and nature that humans have harmed.

This version of the play may contribute to the cast hurrying through dialogue that leans hard into preachiness. Hardy’s Victor is a caricature of a self -righteous zealot whose strategy is just but whose tactics are skewed. Feldman’s Jessica gets amped up quickly from Victor’s manipulating ways and pretty much stays at that level. Their banter is thankfully broken up by Newman’s comic relief and Ruddy’s heartfelt monologue on the privileged Cathy’s progression from nonviolence to militance.

Considering more recent water protection efforts in the U.S. have been peacefully led by indigenous people and people of color, raising those dynamics could have made a more compelling reflection on the current movement. It was, after all, police who killed “Tortuguita,” a peaceful nonbinary Latinx environmental protestor last February at the proposed “Cop City” project in Atlanta, not the other way around.

Stephanie Feury Studio Theatre, 5636 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles; Thurs.-Fri., 7 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; through May 21. https://momentum.booktix.com/ Running time 90 minutes with no intermission.