Challenging Our Identity

What I like best about fine dramatic theater, like that invariably found at the Mark Taper Forum, is it's ability to challenge our most fundamental assumptions about our world. I was not disappointed by this evenings production of "Palestine, New Mexico", the latest vision from that iconoclastic theatrical powerhouse known as Culture Clash. Their third premiere production at MTF since 2003, "Palestine" perfectly concludes one of the most compelling seasons there in recent memory.

The title, itself, hints at an intersection of cultures, histories and beliefs that, on the surface, seem worlds apart. But as the play unfolds, we are gradually drawn to realize the powerful threads common to all human experience.

The play unfolds on an Indian reservation somewhere in New Mexico. At it's center, is an exhausted army colonel, compelled to come here to deliver a letter from a corporal under her command, Ray Birdsong, who died under suspicious circumstances half way around the world in Afghanistan. The letter is for his father, the chief of this reservation and by coming here, the colonel has catalyzed a clash of identities, both modern and ancient. We learn that this young warrior, from an Indian tradition of the American South West, understands and reveres the tribal nature of Afghanistan in ways that his American brethren cannot. This leads him into an unavoidable conflict, and ultimately to his death, but it is his natural recognition of tribal conflict that is at the heart of this story.

Meanwhile, a separate crisis of identity is unfolding on the reservation, as the local Indians struggle to understand their alleged relationship to a neighboring Jewish tribe. Decades of silence have left them uncertain, fearful. But through the death of their tribal "first son", they learn the truth and begin to move forward towards a more inclusive way of life.

Despite the serious tone and message of this play, "Palestine" delivers plenty of comic relief which serves to enhance, not diminish, its impact. The humor is alternatively satirical and comic, putting the audience at ease in ways that, I believe, enables the delivery of its more serious messages. The staging portrays the rugged austerity of the South West with a bare set of rock and sky, occasionally illuminated only by the light of realistic campfires. The audio/visual experience is a broad mixture of song and chant from many traditions, imagery from the first Gulf War (idealized, but unmistakable) and Afghanistan.

As we left the theater, I was filled with a renewed sense of what it means to be "tribal", with an appreciation that it extends beyond traditional ethnic definitions to encompass any attempt to establish "us versus them" boundaries. "Palestine" shows us the dangers we create for ourselves and others each time we create these boundaries. It showed me that these distinctions, while they may appear real, they mask the fundamental truth that we are all really members of only one tribe - the tribe of Life On Earth. We better start acting that way soon.

"Palestine, New Mexico" runs another week through January 24th at the Mark Taper Forum. I urge you to see it, if you can.