THE THANKSGIVING PLAY - REVIEW OF 2024 PRODUCTION AT CAA THEATRE

Reviewed by James Karas

The Thanksgiving Play is a weird play that I have difficulty classifying. It is a satire no doubt about ambitious, ignorant, perhaps well-meaning people trying to create and put on a play in an elementary school. The play is to represent the first Thanksgiving Day dinner of the puritans and the Natives after the former had arrived in Norh America. That is quite an idea but it says very little about the play.

It is a parody of putting on a play, it is a satire and a parody of what they are doing and in the end the laugh is on them and frequently not shared by the audience.

The play is a four-hander with some interesting videos but I will stick to the characters on the stage. All four are shallow, pretentious, ditzy, living in a world that many of us may find unreal, ridiculous and perhaps stupid. Some people may find them entertaining but at times they are too ridiculous to funny.

Logan (Rachel Cairns) is a high school drama teacher who has managed to get grants from all kinds of organizations to direct a play about the first Thanksgiving dinner. She is confident that she will succeed despite the fact she has almost nothing more than a title and is (Colin A. Doyle) facing 300 signatures demanding her dismissal.

Her boyfriend Jaxton (Colin A. Doyle)  is a street performer who considers himself a man of the theatre. He and Logan have acquired mannerisms, positions and tics that are interesting, annoying, ridiculous and far too many.

Alicia (Jada Rifkin) is an attractive and sexually provocative actress who is hired by Logan because she is a native and a play about Native Culture Month must have a native performer. Problem: she is not indigenous and only acts the part. Oops. 

Craig Lauzon, Colin A. Doyle, Jada Rifkin, and Rachel Cairns 

in The Thanksgiving Play. Photo Credit: Dahlia Katz

Caden (Craig Lauzon) is a history teacher who has written 60 plays, not a word of which has been read by a professional actor and not even by a youngster who can read a word with three syllables. All of these characters are parodies of parodies and that may be a step too far.

They try to find a way of representing the first thanksgiving dinner in North America but Caden, the playwright, wants to start a few thousand years ago. He is brough to earth and eventually agrees to set his play  AFTER 1600 AD when the first natives/puritans dinner  may have taken place. It should be noted that there is no play, no script, nothing and the four are getting together to start rehearsals.

The four characters go through many ideas and possible presentation of the event without an indigenous person, with the Caucasians pretending there is a space for the natives on stage without any natives and other ridiculous, amateurish and perhaps plain stupid ideas. All the latter elements could potentially be side-splittingly hilarious. The problem is that they are  not funny.

The Thanksgiving Play is written by Larissa FastHorse an indigenous person who has every right to satirize and ridicule a pathetic attempt at celebrating Native Culture Month by people who are ignorant, incompetent and just plain fools.

The problem may be with director Vinetta Strombergs’ decision to give the actors mannerisms, poses and movements that make them so ridiculous they cease being funny. The play and the situation is funny without gilding the lily to an outrageous extent.
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The Thanksgiving Play by Larissa Fasthorse  continues until October 20,2024 at the CAA Theatre, 651 Yonge St. Toronto, Ontario. For more information go to:www.mirvish.com/the-thanksgiving-play/

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press