‘They Don’t Talk Back’ comes home<\/a>]<\/p>\n\u201cThey Don\u2019t Talk Back\u201d tells the story of a troubled teen from a broken home in the \u201cbig city\u201d \u2014 in this case Juneau \u2014 sent to spend a summer living and working with his grandparents and cousin in a small, unspecified Tlingit fishing village. While billed as a coming-of-age story, really, it\u2019s more of a coming-to-terms with age story, as three generations grapple with questions of family, cultural heritage and mortality.<\/p>\n
If this sounds heavy, well, it is \u2014 especially in the play\u2019s second act. But Katasse has an excellent ear for humor, and he delivers plenty of laughs, even in the saddest moments. This effect is kind of like the theatrical equivalent of salted caramel, a complicated recipe for a first-time playwright; quite honestly, Katasse nails it.<\/p>\n
Of course, the play benefits from a very strong creative team. Ed Littlefield\u2019s original musical compositions, John Nobori\u2019s sound design \u2014 especially the rain, which, as anyone who lives in Southeast Alaska will attest, can be both relentless and beautiful \u2014 and production designer Tom Ontiveros\u2019 visual collages deepen the cultural flavor without overpowering it.<\/p>\n
Under the crisp direction of Randy Reinholz, an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, the entire cast shines \u2014 with at least one monologue per character, Katasse\u2019s script virtually ensures it.<\/p>\n
Tlingit actor, writer and musician Skyler Ray-Benson Davis plays the disaffected Nick, an Alaska Native in hip-hopper\u2019s clothing. A little taste of his Tlingit-infused \u201crhymes\u201d: \u201cHere\u2019s to good weather and fishin\u2019\/just a thought, thanks for listenin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kholan Studi lights up the stage as Nick\u2019s ever-amiable cousin Eddie, also from a broken home, but way better adjusted \u2014 at least to village life. And Brian Pagaq Wescott (Athabascan\/Yup\u2019ik) offers a nimble performance as Nick\u2019s itinerant father, an unstable Iraq War vet who shows up and takes off again.<\/p>\n
But in many ways, the play belongs to the grandparents, Paul (Jake Waid) and Linda (Diane E. Benson). Waid is simultaneously tough and loving, funny and angry, tired and tireless. Much like my own grandfather, he\u2019s also prone to throaty exclamations, only his are in Tlingit, which, I have to say, bears a surprising resemblance to Yiddish. For her part Benson is sweet, sunny and wonderful as Linda (which, no lie, was my grandmother\u2019s name). I found their touching portrayal of a loving, elderly couple among the play\u2019s most enduring aspects.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not to call \u201cThey Don\u2019t Talk Back\u201d perfect. Consisting of two beefy acts, I found it a bit long, with perhaps one or two plot elements too many. And yes, the play does occasionally veer into melodrama. But there\u2019s a fine line between the dramatic and melodramatic, and it\u2019s not always clear, even to seasoned playwrights, let alone a first-timer. If Katasse occasionally strides into afterschool special territory, I, for one, am inclined to give him a pass \u2014 just this once.<\/p>\n
More than anything, though, I left \u201cThey Don\u2019t Talk Back\u201d grappling with my own questions about my own family, cultural heritage and mortality. And that, my friends, is the essence of art: finding the universal in the specific, and the specific in the universal.<\/p>\n
Man, I can\u2019t wait to impart that little truism to my grandson one day; rest assured, I\u2019ll do it without resorting to fisticuffs.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Geoff Kirsch writes from Juneau. Read more at www.geoffkirsch.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I was about 6 or7, my paternal grandfather \u2014 who, as a Jewish kid growing up in a predominately Irish neighborhood in 1930s New York, got jumped every day walking to and from school \u2014 told me to punch him in the shoulder as hard as I could. So I did \u2026 and he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":7458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[74],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-7457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","tag-arts-and-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7457"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=7457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}