Mikaela and I met up for a night at the theater. She’d gotten me tickets to see Thanksgiving Play by Larissa FastHorse, a show that was so popular, they kept it on Broadway for longer than its original run. Beforehand, we grabbed dinner at Jollibee (I do know how to cook, I swear) and then headed on over to the show at The Golden Theater.
The premise of The Thanksgiving Play goes as follows:
Four white people try to put together a play about thanksgiving and in their efforts to create an inoffensive play, they run the risk of telling a wildly offensive play. It is riotously funny, but still poignant (those are the best kinds), taking aim at the egregiously bad handling of the topic of thanksgiving and Native American history in American classrooms.
I think that this play perfectly captures where we are culturally, dramatizing the discourse and the jargon that we are all now so immune to hearing. So many sharp observations have been made, especially when it comes to the way that well-meaning white liberals can impede legitimate progress through their efforts to diversify. The message comes across that sometimes the best way to be an ally is to just be quiet.
The play is satire and the type of story that I anticipate will be around in the form of local productions across the country for years to come. Mikaela and I had a fantastic time, even though we sat on completely opposite ends of the theater. I am now dying to go back to Jollibee, the Filipino fast food restaurant we had dinner at, when I’m next in Times Square.
The Tragic Queen,
Raquel
The Tragic Queen 