Part history lesson, part ecumenical entreaty, part commentary on the hellishness of war, and part acid trip, the Culture Clash’s “Palestine, New Mexico,” directed by Lisa Peterson in its world premiere at the Mark Taper Forum, offers an irreverent, incisive, and interesting look at the way religion and culture intersect in a time of war, a time of death.
Joining The Culture Clash trio - Ric Salinas, Richard Montoya, and Herbert Siguenza - onstage are Kirsten Potter, as Captain Catherine Siler, a bedraggled woman who substitutes peyote for pills as she seeks out the meaning of the death of one of her men, PFC Raymond Birdsong (appearing as a ghost, performed by Justin Rain) who had saved her life in Afghanistan; Russell Means as Chief Birdsong, the young man’s stoic father to whom Siler is delivering a letter from his dead son; Geraldine Keams as Maria 15, an outrageous medicine woman, and Rain as Suarez, whose name the young Birdsong uttered just before he died.
The CC’s performances are surreally entertaining; they don’t seem to be acting but tripping out there in a place described as “Here. And Over There.” But it’s the performance of Potter that provides the continuity and pathos of the production.
With great angst, and not a little obsession, Potter shines as a woman, who, dressed in fatigues, obviously in a bad way, emotionally and physically, makes a pilgrimage to a New Mexico Indian reservation to seek the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of one of her men. She’s a wreck, she’s vulnerable, Army-bluster notwithstanding, and if anyone is in need of spiritual healing, it’s her. Along her journey she gets a glimpse into the lovely character of Raymond Birdsong, into the culture from which he sprang. She also learns of the long-standing though well-hidden connection between his tribe and those of the Jewish faith (enter a Golem-shaped cactus), a connection that shows how world history is not made up of a series of isolated incidents but rather hovers over us like concentric circles. Under Peterson’s sure hand, the connection between war-starting conflicts based on religious difference appears as a symptom of the human condition, a point nicely made in the similarity between the physical features of the New Mexico and the Middle East desert.
The set (Rachel Hauck) and the lighting (Alexander V. Nichols) seamlessly switch from Afghanistan to New Mexico, the only difference being a Moslem call to prayer, allowing us to focus more on similarities than differences.
The production ends this weekend: see it for the multicultural stimulation, stay for the vintage Culture Clash antics, and relish the fact that in a mere 80 minutes or so, you can laugh and cry and be reminded, yet again, that the world is a lot smaller than you might think.
Performances are 8 pm, Tuesday - Sunday, 2:30 pm, Saturday, 1:00 pm, Sunday. The play runs until January 24. Tickets are $20-65. The Mark Taper forum is located at 135 N. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles. For more info call (213) 628-2772 or visit www.centertheatregroup.org.
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