Theatre in Review

	Left to right. Javi Mulero, Jay Russell, Melinda Wade, Joseph Benjamin Glaser. Photo: Harlan Taylor.

Actors Theatre of Louisville: Natural Selection

Since I was in Louisville last week for the USITT Conference, I dropped in on Actors Theatre of Louisville's Humana Festival, the annual new play fiesta that has become a key event on the American theatre's calendar. Oddly, out of two randomly selected productions, a theme emerged. Eric Coble's Natural Selection is most unlike Theresa Rebeck's The Scene, but both share a sharp eye for revealing comic detail and a savage distaste for all that is ersatz and trendy in American culture.

In fact, it's a good thing the Themed Entertainment Association wasn't in town. Its members would probably have had apoplectic fits over Natural Selection, a dystopian comedy with a Disney twist. The time is the day after tomorrow. The United States is an ecological basket case. People spend all day online and the only "real" entertainment is provided by theme parks. Henry Carson works at Wonderworld Culture Fiesta, an Epcot-like parade of nations where the dirty little secret is that the natives have been kidnapped at gunpoint and dragooned into indentured servitude, weaving baskets for the paying customers. The park's agent in these matters, a deranged great white hunter named Ernie Hardaway, isn't producing like he used to, so Henry's dragon-lady boss, the terrifying Yolanda Pastiche, sends him along to keep tabs on Ernie's latest expedition, in which he promises to produce a real Navajo to replace the dwindling population in the North American Tribal Pavilion. ("The mortality rate of the performers is increasingly distressing," tut-tuts Yolanda.)

Henry is a milquetoast, but he is a descendant of Kit Carson, and following a riotously life-threatening helicopter trip manned by an incompetent pilot--a situation that gives Ernie the chance to sound off about women drivers--they bag Zhao Martinez, a non-indigenous mixed-breed smoothie; he befriends Henry, who gives him a crash course in how to behave like a Navajo. Instead of complying, Zhao sets out to undermine daily life at the park, causing everybody to cross ethnic lines, and raising dissatisfaction wherever he goes. In the meantime, a catastrophic hurricane threatens to drown the entire Gulf Coast....

Coble's comic apocalypse is filled with pungent details that scarily resemble the way we live now. Henry's wife, the dizzily self-absorbed Suzie, spends her days watching their son, Terrance, take part in virtual orchestra and soccer practices, then records the details on her blog. (One of the production's more amusing props is an extra-wide laptop called the iLap; for God's sake, don't tell Steven Jobs.) In a particularly amusing sequence, the couple settles their differences via Instant Messaging--even though they're sitting six feet apart. Coble also has a way with a line that reveals the discontents of modern life: "That's what vacations are for-to escape the hell you go through to get them," Henry comments at one point. Later, as the flood waters rise, someone notes, "It's really unfortunate that my mid-life crisis happens to coincide with Armageddon."

Coble's construction is a little weak in Act II--Zhao's character doesn't fully come into focus and more attention could have been paid to the havoc he is wreaking at the park, but the playwright certainly scores plenty of points against our over-connected, under-feeling age. He's also not above some easy, if cattily amusing, swipes at Applebee's, Wal-Mart, and FEMA. Marc Masterson's direction gives this mordant cartoon the pace and furor of a Billy Wilder farce. Jay Russell is a tower of Jell-O as Henry, who wanders from one disastrous situation to another, trying to patch things up. As Ernie, Mark Mineart opens the play with a show-stopping monologue detailing his bloody adventures in the wild. As Suzie, Melinda Wade is a gruesome sunbeam, radiating cheerfulness even in the most inappropriate circumstances. Javi Mulero is an appealingly ambiguous figure as Zhao. The biggest laughs, however, are logged by Heather Dilly, triple-cast as the fierce Yolanda, a reckless aviatrix, and Mrs. Fjelstad, a recruiter from a Jesus-oriented attraction called the Mega Family Christian Praise Park, where the fun includes Cain and Abel Laser Tag.

Masterson has given Natural Selection a production filled with eye-popping effects. Kristin Stone's enormous set contains both Henry's office and living room; there's also a helicopter that rises from below and pitches the actors precariously above the stage. When the flood waters rise, the entire set deconstructs and the back walls part to reveal Jason Czaja's panoramic projections of a rainstorm. Martin R. Desjardins' sound effects, including thunder, the whirr of helicopter rotors, and camera clicks, add to the high-tech feeling. (One disappointment is a notably weak rain effect outside the windows of Henry's office). Deb Sullivan's lighting includes a number of witty touches, including the faint projection of ones and zeros on the office wall. Lorraine Venberg's costumes add to the fun.

Coble's brand of barbed cartoon will not be to everyone's taste, but to my mind Natural Selection is the most sustained piece of theatrical satire since, well, since Bright Ideas, Coble's 2003 farce, in which Macbeth meets the politics of pre-schools. On second thought, maybe the TEA should have been in Louisville. --David Barbour