Review: FAKE IT UNTIL YOU MAKE IT at Mark Taper Forum

Of all the subjects out of which one might craft a knock-down, drag out farce, the collision of competing nonprofits serving the Native American community does not immediately inspire visions of dropped trou and banana peels.
 
But that’s how playwright Larissa FastHorse (Sicangu Lakota Nation) rolls. Or rather, how she rollicks and rolls, especially when she’s working alongside frequent creative partner Michael John Garces, who is at the helm of the world premiere of FastHorse’s FAKE IT UNTIL YOU MAKE IT at the Mark Taper Forum. The production is a co-effort with Arena Stage in Washington D.C. where it will play later in the spring. 

With its gung-ho company of actors, clever construction, wicked cool set and general overall braininess, FAKE IT sails blithely along for 90 minutes, liberally trafficking in chuckles and cringes. The gags are often a bit more lowbrow than one might expect out of a play with this kind of thematic self-seriousness. But, if you’re going to plop a nonprofit named N.O.B.U.S.H. (pronounced “n’boosh” by its founder) prominently into a comedy and not go for the waxing jokes, then you’re no true quipster to begin with. 

FAKE IT’S other do-gooders – just in case we didn’t hook you at N.O.B.U.S.H. – include 2S Pride which is dedicated to two spirit (2S) youth (who embody masculine and feminine spirit, identifying as neither gender) and Safe Shift, an agency that advocates on behalf of people who want to fluidly move between racial identities. 

The two organizations at the heart of this crazy tale are Indigenous Nations Soaring (or INS) and Natives Opposing Buddleja and Uplifting Sovereign Habitats. The former, which looks to boost all Native populations, is run by a white woman named River. The latter, which targets harmful plants that can engender diabetes in butterflies, is run by a Native woman who wants to take INS out once and for all. All four organizations – and their decidedly kooky leaders – occupy the same office complex.

We drop in to find N.O.B.U.S.H.’s Wynona (played by Tonantzin Carmelo) and INS’s River (Julie Bowen) at war. Wynona resents River’s more bountiful resources and cultural appropriation while River ridicules Wynona’s plant antics. There’s also a feud over the affections of River’s cat, Pusila - who goes by “Pusi”-  a feline who apparently prefers Wynona (River has filed a restraining order). N.O.B.U.S.H and INS are up for the same prominent Affiliated Gaming Tribe Coalition Grant, but to qualify, INS will need to prove that its leadership is comprised of at least 50% Native American. 

Which sets Wynona’s mental gears a’scheming. When her (non-native) boyfriend Theo (Noah Bean) comes up after months away on a wilderness-clearing mission abroad, he ends up accidentally interviewing for River’s executive director job, impersonating a Native American and getting the position, Wynona figures to use Theo as a plant to sabotage INS’s grant application and destroy her rival. Theo is on board largely because he wants nothing more than to marry Wynona, who will happily shack up with him (sometimes in public places), but can only wed a man of Native descent. 

So in the guise of Mark Short Bull, Theo infiltrates INS and comes to discover that – run by a “white woman cat colonizer” though it may be – the nonprofit may not be worth torpedoing after all. Then the real Mark Short Bull (Eric Stanton Betts) turns up, forcing a bunch of people to pretend to be other people and engendering much mayhem.

Garces’s team puts said mayhem breezily put through its paces through a series of door slams, fights, confetti gun blasts and plenty of slightly risqué double entendre. Bean, Bowen and Brandon Delsid (as 2S’s director Krys) do most of the running around, but everyone eventually gets in on the act. As the race shifting-attorney Grace, Dakota Ray Hebert pops in and out to lay out FAKE IT’s ethical minefields, always wearing the clothing of a different ethnic group (courtesy of Costume Designer E. B. Brooks who likes things loud and plenty broad). 

Scenic designer Sara Ryung Clement’s double-level office complex is a feast of orange and ochres covered in striking murals by local artists. A bank of planters sits downstage and a boxy partition of connecting offices slides into place to facilitate indoor hijinks.

FAKE IT’s physical and intellectual humor aren’t always completely in synch with each other, but the play is smart enough and directed with enough crispness to keep things entertaining. Bowen and Carmelo are deliciously catty when they bring River and Wynona into full-on adversary mode (although the play wimps out slightly when it softens both characters). Watching the blonde and very Caucasian-looking Bowen (late of MODERN FAMILY) falling for ruses and buffoonishly following what she thinks are strict instructions from the Affiliated Gaming Tribe Coalition is a hoot indeed. Betts and Delsid, both gifted physical comedians, handle the trick Mark Short Bull ruse with a nice blend of zaniness and lust. 

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