An antic energy infuses Between Two Knees, along with a noble impulse to educate (mostly white) audiences about the Native American experience of the last century or so — from the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee in South Dakota through the 1973 siege of that same town by Ogala Lakota protesters. The amusing show, written by an intertribal indigenous sketch comedy troupe known as the 1491s (named for the year before Christopher Columbus’s calamitous “discovery”), opened Tuesday at the new PAC NYC space near the World Trade Center following successful runs at several regional theaters.
Our narrator and master of ceremonies (Justin Gauthier) sets the tone when he introduces himself with his “most sacred Indigenous name, Larry.” After reminding the audience of how we “all tried to wipe us out and clean us off the map,” he adds, “can you imagine how hard it was to cast this play?” One member of the eight-person ensemble, James Ryen, even steps forward to admit he’s of Korean heritage to further punctuate the punchline. And Larry quickly assures us that despite the schooling we’re about to get, “when you guys leave you’re still going to own everything.”
The show works best when it takes a broad, sketch-comedy approach — trotting out a Wheel of Massacres or giving an oversize pair of heirloom moccasins to one of its key characters with a dangling tag that reads “plot device.” Lux Haac’s costumes look like bedazzled relics from a theme-park Western show, while by Regina Garcia’s stage design includes “Indian” mascots like Chief Wahoo of the Cleveland baseball team and the headdress-wearing woman from the Land-o-Lakes butter packages poking out from the sides of the proscenium arch.
Like many sketch-based comedies, some scenes (and jokes) play better than others. Rachel Crowl is a particular standout in a variety of roles, including a faux “Native American wedding specialist” named Wichoni Whitedove who dispenses hilarious New Agey hogwash to a young indigenous couple looking to get hitched. And James Ryen, looking like Ike Barinholtz’s younger cousin, is a delightful repeat offender as everything from the Mother Superior of an abusive Catholic boarding for indigenous kids to George Washington to a dim-witted Army officer to a character that the program describes only as “The Vietnam War as Interpretive Dance.”
Unfortunately, the overlong first act frequently strays from the light-hearted format to present a mostly earnest and conventionally plotted narrative about one Native family’s journey through the 20th century, including tours through the Great Depression and World War II. The show, directed by Eric Ting, is on surer ground when it’s framing its exposition through a comedic filter — or deflating more somber moments with a quick contemporaneous dig (like the repeated needling of Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan). Still, there’s an admirable effort to wrap some weighty history in a blanket of satirical humor — and Between Two Knees hits its targets with impressive regularity.
culturesauce.com 