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This is Banned
Reviewed by Elizabeth Wachtel
NoHo Actors Studio
Through Nov. 29
The first of Samantha Macher’s world premiere duo of one-acts is a dystopic meditation on the atrocities of modern warfare, while the second is a statement on gun control told with a Victorian twist. If forced to explain why these two plays are being staged together under a unifying title, one could argue that both pieces seek to provoke conversation about society’s repeated failure to acknowledge the effects that manmade weapons have on an individual’s humanity. Unfortunately, at the end of the night, I was so flummoxed by the texts and their staging, I was in no position to discuss the significant issues that prompted their creation.
Jonathan Price’s direction of Reset, the first play of the double bill, opens with a promising stage picture: The torso of one soldier, Ross (Jack Kennedy), spills out of a broken cinder block wall, while another mangled body, Teegan (Jeff Alan Lee), lies on the floor of a lackluster but not distractingly inadequate set that conjures up images of a Middle Eastern desert. Teegan and Ross, echoing Beckett’s Vladimir and Estragon, are waiting for Davis, a Godot-like figure, to pick them up after an accident that has left them both incapacitated. As the play moves forward it becomes increasingly clear that Davis is never going to return. Why? In spite of their human appearance, both Teegan and Ross are robots who have been engineered with varying degrees of artificial intelligence and sentient capabilities. Ross is an earlier model of soldier whose sole purpose is to detonate bombs, while Teegan has been built with more human qualities, including the ability to dream and to experience fear.
The challenging questions that Macher attempts to broach with Reset are timely: Does warfare turn humans into machines? What are the longterm effects of combat on an individual? Given current events, the play could also be used as a jumping off point to discuss the ethics of drones and the consequences when foreign powers withdraw from war-torn countries. It was frustrating to see these issues clouded by a variety of distractions, ranging from an uninspired use of profanity to unnecessary interpretive dances with robot figurines, all conspiring to fragment the hour-long play into disjointed vignettes.
In the closing sequence, the production’s lost opportunities are amplified by Kennedy’s strong performance as Ross. Kennedy’s darting gaze communicates the fear, confusion, and sadness of an individual confronted with the technological innovations of 21st century warfare. It’s a simple, but powerful moment of acting, revealing the promise of what this play could be.
For the second half of This is Banned, the audience is moved into a separate space to see Winchester, a one-act that tells the story of Sarah Winchester, who (somewhat like Teegan in Reset) is haunted by the devastating effect of modern weaponry on human lives. The straightforward plot concerns Sarah (a grounded performance by Chera Holland), the heiress to the Winchester arms fortune. Having lost both her husband and child, she has moved to San Jose with her lady’s maid Minnie (Emma Sperka) and her butler George (Jeffrey Markle) to get a fresh start. Nonetheless, she continues to be disturbed by ghostly presences and seeks out the help of the psychic medium Lillian (Lois Weiss) in an attempt to come to terms with her family’s past.
As with Reset, the main problem with Winchester is how the staging and text undermine the political view. It’s a shame, because the conversation that the play is seeking to provoke (in this case, a dialogue about gun control) is so admirable. And although Macher’s play is peppered with moments of poetic reflection, the pseudo-19th century dialogue comes across as stilted, particularly when set against the tired set that attempts to evoke the iconic San Jose home of Sarah Winchester.
Despite Holland’s vigorous attempts to hold the play together, Weiss’s performance as the psychic medium deflates the energy of the play at its most central moment. These problematic elements come together to create a perfect storm and, ultimately, director JR Esposito’s efforts to create an atmosphere of terror and suspense fall flat.
Despite both plays’ faults, the cast and creative team of This is Banned deserve commendation for creating works that seek to engage with pivotal ethical and political issues of our day. The weaknesses of This is Banned are, in some respects, a reflection of the complexities of the times we live in. Even so, significant reworking would do these plays no harm.
A Theatre Connection and SkyPilot Theatre Company at NoHo Actors Studio, 5215 Lankershim Blvd., N. Hlywd.; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; through Nov. 29. (800) 838-3006, www.atheatreconnection.com
