'The Thanksgiving Play': Superb satire of 'woke'

‘THE THANKSGIVING PLAY’: Chris Sullivan & D’Arcy Carden. Photo: Joan Marcus.

THE THANKSGIVING PLAY
Written by Larissa FastHorse
Directed by Rachel Chavkin
Through June 4, 2023
The Hayes Theater
240 West 44th Street
(212-541-4516), www 2st.com

By David NouNou

Larissa FastHorse’s The Thanksgiving Play is about as close to the theatre of the absurd as one can get. However, this absurdity is in the form of a satire on the state of “woke.” Ms. FastHorse, being a member of the Sicangu Lakota Nation, is the ideal person to write such a play and capture all the nuances of the spoken word of what can be said or can’t be said on or off stage.

Logan (Katie Finneran) was an actress and now is a director for an elementary school. She has just received a grant to direct a Thanksgiving play providing it has a Native American in the cast. She and her boyfriend, Jaxton (Scott Foley), a street performer/yoga enthusiast, are jointly working to present this play in a non-offensive, nontraditional, non-confrontational way and trying to sort out all the machinations on how this will come about.

Logan brings in two people that hopefully can sort out all the issues that arise in today’s “woke” society. In comes writer Caden (Chris Sullivan); he is an aficionado on the matter and has done research on Thanksgiving dating back to 3,000 years ago. The second is Alicia (D’Arcy Carden), an actress whom Logan hired, thinking she is a Native American. As it turns out Alicia is everything but a Native American. Her agent has advised her to have six different headshots to qualify her for any role from Native American to a Latina, and she was third understudy to Jasmine in Disney’s Aladdin. Alicia has been hired without checking her origins, because that would be discriminatory.

Problems keep arising for Logan who is in a serious predicament, because if she doesn’t get a Native American, she fears she will get fired or lose grant money. Logan decides to improvise this play and tries to find a way without offending somebody. With all the improvisations, there is no easy solution; hence the conundrum that “woke” has generated. The fun in the play is how to arrive to a reasonable solution, and it’s a dilly.

Director Rachel Chavkin has done a great job in keeping the play moving at a frantic pace, therein lies the humor. She has her cast on their feet and no one comes off better than the outstanding D’Arcy Carden as Alicia, for she embodies the beautiful vapid Hollywood actress that believes she doesn’t have to do anything but just be. She is perfection. The inimitable Katie Finneran is her usual great, energetic self as the uptight director trying her best to commit to a non-offensive production. Scott Foley and Chris Sullivan are ideal foils for these polar opposite women.

The pleasure here is how Ms. FastHorse has illustrated how “woke” has gotten a stranglehold on the theatre. Her Thanksgiving play is a thought-provoking metaphor for how far “woke” and political correctness can and has permeated American culture.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published April 27, 2023
Reviewed at April 26, 2023 press performance.