Tackling complex issues in simple style
by Chuck Graham on Feb. 21, 2008, under Calendar
Jacob Brown (left) and Charlie Solis in "Topsy Turvy Mouse.''
The world premiere of any play is special. But the world premiere of an exceptional play is . . . exceptional. “Topsy Turvy Mouse” by Peter Gil-Sheridan is one of those. Borderlands Theater opened the first full production last weekend. Although that title sounds a little goofy, the play is serious as a heart attack.
Gil-Sheridan’s subject is nothing less than wondering how America will ever repair the self-inflicted damage to its own idealism after the war in Iraq is over.
For just as the country of Bach, Beethoven and Brahms is still remembered first for being the country of Hitler’s Nazis, so will the United States be known for its cold hypocrisy as the aggressor in Iraq. And most certainly for the treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and the prisoners at Guantanamo, as well as the waterboard victims held in secret prisons we don’t even know about.
No country in the world has depended more on its own idealism than America. We love to think of ourselves as the country that helps people, not the country that tortures people.
“Topsy Turvy Mouse” reminds us this damage to our ideals will reach into the next generation. If there really is such a thing as situational ethics, is there also such a thing as situational responsibility? We need to decide this now, for torturing prisoners will only get easier next time there is a good excuse.
Maybe the sins of the parents are only passed on to the children under certain conditions. If that’s the case, who gets to pick the conditions? Will the country be in complete agreement on what those conditions are?
While the issues confronted by “Topsy Turvy Mouse” are complex and disturbing, the play itself is deceptively simple. Gil-Sheridan begins with a pair of 15-year-old boys who attend the same school.
Both are geeky kids without any friends. But Richie (Charlie Solis) is American. Amit (Jacob Brown) and his mom, Una (Annabelle Nuñez), are from India. So Richie figures it’s OK if he beats up Amit after school. Who cares? Amit is a raghead (says Richie).
Through some clever theatrical business of photographs projected onto a small screen at the side of the stage, we slowly come to realize Richie’s parents are two of the soldiers who posed in those disgusting photographs at Abu Ghraib. These parents, Sandy (Noël Chester) and Kenny (Dwayne Palmer), are rightfully ashamed. They have tried to keep their military past a secret from Richie and from their community.
At school, Richie and Amit become wary friends just because everyone else in class ignores them. The catalyst for the plot becomes an unseen African-American girl at school. Developmentally disabled, she is the only child with less social standing among the students than Richie and Amit. So they tease her.
Anita Smith-Etheridge gives a powerful performance as the girl’s mother, Christine. One key scene is Christine’s monologue about her daughter. About being the mother of a loving child who is only too keenly aware she can’t keep up with the other kids at school. No matter how hard she tries. No matter how hard her mom tries to help.
The play includes some plot twists at the end that are better left discovered by watching the Borderlands’ production. Barclay Goldsmith directs with an understated hand, letting the two boys give natural performances as they come to realize how much they have in common.
Sandy and Kenny are forced to accept they will never escape the past. No matter how hard they try to rationalize their acts in Iraq. We know they were there. We know what they did. We have the pictures.
Grade: A
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IF YOU GO
What: World premiere production of “Topsy Turvy Mouse” by Peter Gil-Sheridan
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, again Feb. 28-March 1; matinees at 2 p.m. Sunday and March 2
Where: Cabaret Theatre, Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave.
Price: $10.75-$19.75, with discounts
Info: 882-7406, borderlandstheater.org
