An American officer provides the clash in New Mexico culture.

It’s opening night for “Palestine, New Mexico” at the Mark Taper Forum and the scripted action rolls out on stage. Voices begin to reveal the themes of war, religion, country, race, a soldier’s mysterious death, and the purity of tribal blood lines. All played out on a beautiful set of red mountains blue heavens. It’s a tale of an American officer who comes to a fictitious tribal town to explain to the chief that his son’s death might be part of a military cover up. It’s also a story of two tribes divided by the Jewish roots that connect them.

When the conquistadores came from Spain to the new land they brought with them Jewish slaves. The dark skin slaves that eventually broke away from their masters were able to live among the natives and naturally inter-breed. An interesting story I had never heard.

At first, it was a little awkward to see the stage being shared by so many actors that I had never seen before. I don’t mean that in a bad way, I’m just so used to seeing the boys do their thing as a Chicano Trinity: Richard, Herbert and Ric. They have used other actors before but this is the first time they take a step back and play supporting roles. The play starts without them and they play supporting actors the whole way through. It turns out to be a brave move away from the spotlight and a new focus on the Native American experience. They do manage to throw in a few comedy scenes but if you come for the jokes it’s not enough and the play seems to struggle between being a comedy or a drama. Two things CC has always blended flawlessly.

After the first half hour of trying to piece the murder mystery together I started to really enjoy Captain Catherine Siler (Kirsten Potter) and Maria 15 (Geraldine Keams). They were polar opposites in a world of, “too much sky, not enough me.”

This is on opening night and you gotta allow for a few glitches in the theatrical matrix, but a little more than a couple of lines were stepped on and a few cues were off by a millisecond. Two things that disturbed the flow of the show for me.

After an hour, I let go of the pre-conceived ideas of what I think a CC show should be. When I did let go, it allowed me to accept this play as a new piece of writing with no real precedent, far from the Chicano themes I expect but very close to the literal definition of, “culture clash.” By this time in my experience, a native chief stood before me on a mountain side and read a letter from his fallen son that brought me to tears. They got me.

Then, as I prepared for the intermission to come, the play ends. What?

I felt the play was too short; 8pm to 9:30 with no intermission. I wasn’t confused, I could tell the play was coming to full circle but I couldn’t believe it was happening so fast.

I wanted to see more of Top Hat (Montoya), Farmer (Siguenza) and Broson (Salinas). I wanted to laugh more. I wanted more of the peyote trip, war flashbacks.

In the end, I enjoyed the show but wanted more. Good thing I’m going back to see them in a few weeks. This time, no preconceived notions and an open mind.

Palestine, New Mexico
by Richard Montoya for Culture Clash
Directed by Lisa Peterson
World Premiere
December 3, 2009 – January 24, 2010
For Tickets click here!