Good intentions. Bad decisions. Great fun. In Larissa FastHorse’s satirical comedy The Thanksgiving Play, a troupe of really well-meaning theater artists dream of creating something revolutionary: a culturally sensitive, totally inoffensive Thanksgiving school pageant that finally gives a voice to Native Americans. Finding said Native Americans... isn’t so simple. And that’s when things start to get absurd. Sending up a whole feast of social issues, this bitingly funny play roasts everything right, wrong, and woke in America.
Carden is absolutely hilarious as the airheaded Alicia. Considering that she first rose to prominence playing the omniscient artificial intelligence Janet on The Good Place, the role really shows off her range. Sullivan makes Caden's insistence on correcting uses of the term 'pilgrims' with 'well, they called themselves Separatists' funnier every time, Foley admirably keeps a straight face while demonstrating how his character's sensitivity can so easily run all the way back around to ignorance, and Finneran gets more and more hilariously frazzled as Logan's goals collapse around her. The next Thanksgiving is more than half a year away at this point, but the questions posed by The Thanksgiving Play are worth pondering at any time.
Repeated several times over the course of 90 minutes, that cycle - enhanced by Chavkin’s pacing, which leaves you swallowing your laughter - can lead to an upset stomach. And the characters are sometimes so exaggerated for satire that they lose their grip on your emotions. Still, by the time the bloody tale of the Pequot massacre is enacted onstage, you may find yourself agreeing with Logan, of all people. Being a vegan, she already struggles with the “holiday of death”; I wanted to disown it entirely, from the turkeys all the way back to the Pilgrims. But “The Thanksgiving Play” is not primarily a brief for correcting American history. Like Tracy Letts’s “The Minutes,” which also uncovered a horrific massacre hiding in the clothing of civic pageantry, FastHorse is interested in how new information (new only to some people) might change the stories we tell in the future. The first step, to judge by the absurd crew onstage, will be to change the storytellers. FastHorse being the first Native American woman known to have a play produced on Broadway, maybe we’ve finally started.
Digital Rush
Price: $43
Where: TodayTix.com
When: 9am on the day of the show.
Limit: Two per customer
Information: Subject to availability.
General Rush
Price: $45
Where: Hayes Theatre box office
When: Available 2 hours prior to curtain.
Limit: Two per customer
Information: Determined at the discretion of the box office. Subject to daily availability.
2018 | Off-Broadway |
Playwrights Horizons World Premiere Off-Broadway |
2023 | Broadway |
Second Stage Original Broadway Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2023 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | D'Arcy Carden |
2023 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play | The Thanksgiving Play |
2023 | Theatre World Awards | Theatre World Awards | D'Arcy Carden |
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