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Occupation
Reviewed by Jessica Salans
Sacred Fools Theatre Company
Through May 9
RECOMMENDED:
Satire can make unpalatable truths digestible. Sacred Fools Theatre Company has always been one to push the boundaries on what audiences can stomach (2014’s Taste about cannibalism in urban America, for example). With their latest show, the west-coast premiere of Ken Ferrigni’s Occupation, they successfully lure frivolity into something more unsavory.
Set two years in the future, the United States, crippled by debt and soaring unemployment, has sold Florida to China for five trillion dollars. (With global warming in full swing, the southern most leg of the state may be under water within the next two years anyway, right?) The impassioned rednecks of the South Florida Christian Militia (SFCM), led by Gare Cartwright (K.J. Middlebrooks), aren’t giving up without a fight. They are determined to kick the Chinese out of our homeland.
Included in the insurgency is the physically weakened, fervid spiritual leader of the camp, Florian Hale (Brandon Bales). Florian is driven by the memory of his martyred father, Bay Hale (played on screen by Bruno Oliver), who is a former car salesman and preacher who founded SFCM. Then there’s Kell Cartwright (Alyssa Preston), at first quietly questioning the rationale of the SFCM insurgency before throwing in a white flag to save the one person she loves most dearly, her husband, Gare. Bets (Halle Charlton) lives on the outskirts of the camp. Although she has been raped and impregnated by Chinese soldiers, she indefatigably sleeps with as many SFCM fighters she can, to rack up “uncles” who she can stick with take-care-of-baby-when-born IOUs.
Head of the Chinese-occupation in Florida (which is dubbed “An Lushan” — named after the crazed general responsible for the rebellion against the Tang dynasty in 755), is the newly appointed Pro-Consul Geng Zedong (Robert Paterno). ‘Z’’s employee, once-American “Maria” now Chinese-citizen re-christened, “Mei Mei” (Rebecca Larsen) is the true brains behind the occupation. Mei Mei acquiesces to the Pro-Consul’s sexual and herbal predilections in order to project her imperialistic ideas onto the occupation . . . while also being paid seven figures a month.
While all performances are rich and believable, the women here are particularly magnetic. Larsen fully embodies the cool, professional power of Mei Mei, yielding with eye-rolls to her bath-robed boss. Charlton LAO gives a rigorous, multi-layered performance as the young Bets, simplistic in her needs and fearless in her steadfastness, sass, and ability to survive.
DeAnne Millais’ set effectively transports the audience between the insurgent camp and the Pro Consul office, while director and sound designer, Ben Rock, wisely chooses an invigorating hip-hop soundtrack to keep the energy charged in transitions. Though the play runs on the long side, the show accomplishes, as Rock writes in his director’s note, a “critical lens” by making American characters victims of the kind of colonialism that we’ve historically indulged in overseas. When you apply the play’s supposedly absurd circumstances to current events, the comedic veil lifts, leaving one with an Orwellian unease.
Sacred Fools Theatre Company; Fri.- Sat., 8 p.m.; Thurs., April 16 & 23, 8 p.m.; through May 9. https://www.sacredfools.org/
