NATURAL SELECTION
By Eric Coble
Directed by Mark Sutch

For the competitive egos of "Natural Selection," in a future that may already be here, the nostalgia for lost native worlds becomes a crucial game of work, passion, fantasy, and survival. The play opens with Ernie (Brett Gentile) telling his story of an exotic flight and crash, much exaggerated, as he explains why he failed to capture a Native American for a theme park exhibit, Wonder World's Culture Fiesta in Florida. Yolanda (Tanya McClellan), an administrator there, pressures manager Henry Carson (Joseph Klosek) to live up to the fame of his ancestor, Kit, and join Ernie on another expedition, because "bagging Indians" is in his blood. At first, Henry's wife, Suzie (Caroline Renfro), is too busy blogging about him to listen to him. But when he gets through to her, she objects to his trip to the dangerous deserts of Arizona--unless he brings back photos for her blog. During a crazy helicopter ride (onstage), Henry shoots a dart at an Indian shepherd (Jeremy DeCarlos) on the ground, capturing him for his company. But when Henry brings the Indian back to his office in Florida, he's disappointed to learn that the Zhao Martinez is only a half breed and doesn't know much of the Navajo culture.

Henry's story about bagging his Indian excites his wife, but he's then hassled by representatives from other theme parks, who want to buy his native. Henry refuses to sell and teaches Zhao the ways of the Navajo, so he can play the native in the Culture Fiesta exhibit. Zhao even comes home with Henry to meet his wife for dinner, inspiring them to passionate messiness and animal ecstasy with the way he bites into his sloppy joe.

The comic situations in this play often have political points, especially when Zhao tells Henry, who's complaining that he's not weaving Navajo baskets, that whites want to "freeze" Indians in the past, not see them as continuing to evolve. Zhao creates havoc at the theme park by mixing props between exhibits and teaching his native friends to change. He eventually helps them break out of Wonder World and celebrates, with Henry and his family, the apocalyptic flood hitting Florida, with a new world thus being made.

Laughter becomes difficult in watching this play, perhaps because the politics challenge our customary sense of correctness, but also because the actors shout their lines throughout most of the show. Yet, they portray each character (some offering us more than one) in precise detail, often engaging the audience with infectious energy in the intimate space of Actors Theatre. The set alone deserves an ovation: rocks and desert sand mixed with office areas and home scenes, as well as the helicopter ride and an actual rainfall at the edge of the stage. The ending sends the audience away with joy, even if challenged by the biting satire, as Zhao teaches Henry to dance in the rain, as a mythic coyote to his Kit, reviving the cycles of change--and discovering that "native" authenticity can become real after all, despite the white man's games of nostalgic illusion.

Review by Mark Pizzato