March
Reviewed by Dana Martin
Los Angeles LGBT Center and Playwrights’ Arena
Through November 15th
LA’s LGBT Center and Playwrights’ Area have gone (COVID compliantly) rogue by staging high stakes drama in the LGBT Center parking garage. (The audience watches the action from within their cars, sound broadcast through a pre-set FM radio station.) March, conceived and directed by Jon Lawrence Rivera and written by MJ Brown, Amir Levi, Coretta Monk, Alex Budin, Chad Christopher, Matthew Clark, Brandon English, MARDOZA, Jon Lawrence Rivera, Roland Ruiz and Nick Salome, is high stakes melodrama with a lot of heart.
It’s the year 2045 and things are not going well. Mary (Coretta Monk), Lavinia (Amir Levi) and Sydney (MJ Brown/Miss Barbie Q), a hastily formed trio of outcasts on the run, find themselves in a parking lot with nowhere to hide. An oppressive, domineering military presence occupies the area, apprehending any person who identifies outside strict assigned gender norms. Mary and Sydney are black transgender women and Lavinia is multi-racial and non-binary — therefore all three are being hunted like prey. Soon, cis white male Captain Calley (Chad Christopher) and his clan of law-and-order loving military soldiers confront the trio. The Captain issues one singular command: Conform. The trio are ordered to shed their chosen identities and join the fold post-haste. It’s a bleak fate: a fall-in-line, militarized existence, erased of all personal preference or individuality.
The stylized action and sprinkling of magic realism create an otherworldly atmosphere (if only just barely). The play’s major themes circle personal authenticity and pride in one’s identity. The show exemplifies the dangers the trans community faces and foreshadows a highly intolerant future. Overall, the story lacks expositional clarity and plot details are vague. The masks and face shields the actors wear throughout aren’t too terribly distracting because of the clarity of the sound but intimacy is still lost. Yet, what the production lacks in plot and story detail is made up for through concept and execution. The experience as a whole is exciting. And the brisk 45-minute run time makes the constant high stakes manageable.
Amir Levi is fiery and defiant as Lavinia; always ready for a fight and not having to look very far to find one. Coretta Monk’s faith-filled Mary is even-tempered and level-headed. MJ Brown (Miss Barbie Q) finds a gritty, straight-forward Sydney who works hard to outpace her demons.
All three characters share many intimate personal details; they lament and lambast, shout, accuse and defy — but rarely make authentic connections with the audience or each other. Chad Christopher creates an effective cameo as sinister Captain Calley. The soldiers (Alex Budin, Matthew Clark, Diego de Los Andes, Brandon English, MARDOZA and Roland Ruiz) provide unified and intimidatingly homogenized support.
Jon Lawrence Rivera’s direction is fast-paced and he fuels the drama with relentlessly high octane. Rivera centralizes most of the action to a common area, making decent use of the site-specific space. The action is simply staged, and brief, stylized transitions maintain the play’s momentum. Lighting design by Matt Richter is innovative and highly functional. Richter blends industrial flood lights and small, strategically placed faders/strobe lights, creating a stark, severe environment. Edwin Peraza’s sound design is spot-on, generating an eerie, otherworldly vibe. The sound mix via the radio is excellent, while the actors are clearly heard, even through masks and face shields. Mylette Nora’s costume design finds the contrast between individual expression and bland conformity.
As COVID continues to cripple our theatre community, Playwrights’ Arena forges a way forward into the strange new world of socially distant theatre — an art form that is constantly re-inventing itself. March, a dark, intense, over-the-top melodrama in the form of a live-action, drive-in radio play in a Hollywood parking garage, is a testament to that reinvention.
(Funds raised by this production of March will support Homeless Youth Programs that assist trans and gender non-conforming youth.)
LALGBT Center and Playwrights’ Arena at The Garage at the LGBT Center’s Anita May Rosenstein Campus, 1118 N. McCadden Pl., Hlywd.; Sat.-Sun., 7:30 & 9 p.m.; through Nov. 15th. lalgbtcenter.org/theatre. Running time: 45 minutes.
