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Regional Reviews: San Francisco Landless Also see Patrick's review of Edith Piaf: Beneath Paris Skies and Richard's review of The Anarchist
So it is with Landless, playing two more weekends in San Rafael before moving to a two-week run at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Landless is currently being staged in a vacant storefront, with lighting leftover from the Indian specialties emporium that had occupied the space. The space itself is the set, with only an odd assemblage of racks and shelves and boxes meant to establish the scene as a general goods store on its last day of business, having been run into bankruptcy due in large part to the appearance of a Walmart on the edge of town. But ignore those faults (and a few others) and you will find yourself immersed in a powerful new play by Larissa Fasthorse that deserves a far better staging than it gets here. Ignore also the tagline AlterTheater came up with. This is not "a new play about the heart of downtown." Yes, there's plenty here about the transformation of Main Street by Wall Street (though it never gets strident or preachy), but it's more about identity than economics. It's about how we see ourselves. What we know about ourselves. And what we don't. In fact, just drop "of downtown" and the tagline fits perfectly: Landless: A new play about the heart. Landless begins in the present, on the night when Elise (Patricia Silver) is preparing for the auction that will liquidate the last inventory of a mercantile store established by her great-grandfather. She is aided in this by Josiah (Nick Garcia), a much younger man who at first appears to be an assistant, but is soon revealed to be far more important to Elise. In the first of many flashbacks, we see the day they met: Josiah is a precocious 10-year old, looking to escape a rigid and judgmental single father. Elise, who never married, takes in the little boy who feels like he doesn't fit anywhere and gives him a home and a taste of unconditional maternal love. Over the course of the next 100 or so minutes, the years pass and the world around Elise and Josiah changes in ways that shakes them to their cores of their beings. I won't say much more about the story. I'd rather you take Fasthorse's journey on your own. In the scene where Elise and Josiah meet for the first time, Josiah reveals that he's native American, but of a tribe the federal government has classified as extinct. "They call us a 'landless tribe,' which sounds cool, but it isn't." This identity is never far from mind, and drives action both within the story and within the psyches of Elise and Josiah. The show has some truly wonderful moments—several of which will be even more wonderful when the play is staged in a more conventional setting. (This is not to disparage AlterTheater's mission, part of which is transforming storefronts into performance spaces, but simply a recognition of the fact that a legitimate theater offers benefits an empty retail space can't—even when the story takes place in a [soon to be] retail space.) There is a moment in act two when Josiah sings a heartbreaking native song that brought tears to the eyes of more than one audience member—but which could have been even more stunning with the lighting instruments available in a more traditional theater. When Elise twirls—ostensibly between two mirrors placed in parallel—the magic would be enhanced if we could actually see the reflections of her extending off into a seeming infinity. The cast are clearly fully-committed to their roles, and dive into them with love and gusto and sincerity, but they aren't quite able to access the depth of emotion that is happening for these characters within the text. There are truths in the script that are not being mined. But this is a world premiere, and it takes time for even the most talented actors—several sets of them, often—to explore the many layers of a truly great play. So, is this a great play? Not yet. There are moments where the flow is abrupt, where important plot elements seem to happen too easily, or lack what feels like a genuine motivation. I'm certain at the end of this run, Fasthorse will have learned a great deal about her text and will discover more efficient ways of helping us understand her characters, and why they do as they do, and end up where they do. Landless has a lot of potential. Some of it has already been fulfilled. This is, despite any concerns I have expressed, a wonderful work of the playwright's art. It's moving and mystical and powerful and human, and a thousand other things a play ought to be. And there a great deal of room for this show to grow and develop into a truly great theatrical experience. I hope it gets the opportunity to do so. For now, get yourself down to what will soon be an expansion of Johnny's Donuts (or to the A.C.T. Costume Shop Theater) and be able to say you saw Landless in its very first incarnation. Landless runs through February 1, 2015, at 1619 Fourth Street, San Rafael, with shows on Friday and Saturday at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 and 7:00 p.m., and from February 12-22 at American Conservatory Theatre's Costume Shop Theater, 1117 Market Street, San Francisco, with shows Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8:00 p.m., and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $25. Tickets and additional information are available at www.altertheater.org. or by calling the box office at 415-454-2787
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