STAGE REVIEW: OCCUPATION

Florian (Brandon Bales) and Bets (Hall Chareton) in Occupation.

Buy, bye

By Ed Rampell

Playwright Ken Ferrigni’s outrageous Occupation appears to possess the hallmarks of Sacred Fools’ productions such as Bill & Joan, Jon Bastian’s Beat Generation play about scrivener William S. Burroughs; Stoneface about comedian Buster Keaton; and the company’s two Sherlock Holmes parodies. Occupation has originality.

In the not-too-distant future an indebted USA sells Florida to the Peoples Republic of China. This leads to an Everglades insurgency fought in the swamps, pitting the South Florida Christian Militia against the People’s Liberation America (PLA).

This is a pretty hilarious notion. Montages of faux news clips with a Jon Stewart panache appear on the stage’s three flat screen TVs. The Chinese consul’s name, Zedong (Robert Paterno), riffs on Chairman Mao Zedong’s moniker. Redbook aficionados are pitted against Bible-thumpers -- one of those Jimmy Swaggart Southern televangelist types, Bay Ray (Bruno Oliver), and his son, Florian (Brandon Bales). Florian and Zedong also cleverly appear in stagecraft stretching videos shot in-house that are played on the playhouse’s screens live (kudos to video designer Anthony Backman). It seems as if all’s well on the satirical frontlines and we’re off and running to the races.

Alas, while the preposterous premise is far out, Occupation’s problem is in its execution. Instead of playing the Sunshine Patriots in the Sunshine State versus socialists saga for laughs as a farce, the Reds vs. Rednecks storyline veers towards tragedy. By taking itself too seriously, as if the credulity-stretching plot was plausible, this dystopian drama loses credibility. At times the acting becomes histrionic.

Sacred Fools is a bold theater company, and in productions such as it s version of Bertolt Brecht’s Baal, it hasn’t flinched from presenting onstage nudity and/or violence, but Occupation arguably becomes too bloody, while the plot’s harrowing denouement is pregnant with mass extermination of biblical proportions. Meanwhile, director Ben Rock’s staged sex is, for some reason, less graphic: It’s a case of make war, not love.

Setting the mood, scenic designer DeAnne Millais does yeoman’s (yeowoman’s?) work in conjuring up a set which convincingly evinces three or four different locales: The office where the corrupt, married Zedong makes out with mistress Mei Mei (willowy Rebecca Larsen); the Everglades where the Swamp Foxes led by Gare (K.J. Middlebrooks) are based and launch their sneak attacks on the PLA invaders from; and the campsite of the pregnant Bets’ (Halle Charleton), who comes across like a female counterpart to Deliverance’s demented hillbillies.

Unfortunately, by buying into its unbelievable hypothesis the satire retires at Florida and is a misfire. Well, they can’t all be Louis and KeelyLive at the Sahara -- the much extended hit that premiered at Sacred Fools and found its way to a larger theatrical venue.


Occupation runs through April 23 at the Sacred Fools Theater, 660 N. Heliotrope Dr., L.A., CA 90004. For more info: 310-281-8337; www.sacredfools.org/.