Review: THE REAL AMERICANS is a Must-See at Mosaic Theater Company

When actor and writer Dan Hoyle left San Francisco on a three-month trip through small-town Middle America several years ago, he couldn't have predicted that many of the disillusioned "real Americans" he encountered on his travels would be part of a nationwide movement to elect Trump in 2016. Hoyle's astounding one-man show, THE REAL AMERICANS (developed with and directed by Charlie Varon), reveals poignant perspectives of these individuals with humor, emotional depth, and authenticity.

Hoyle demonstrates an uncanny ability to embody racially and culturally diverse men and women from across the nation's heartland. With the aid of just a few hats (and solid lighting design by E-Hui Woo), he takes on numerous voices with strong physicality and great sensitivity. Hoyle's razor-sharp writing and performing draws out laughter and emotional impact. His portrayal of characters based on real people, from members of his own navel-gazing brunch crowd in San Francisco to a young Latino veteran to a black drug dealer, is just on the edge of parody without being offensive. Hoyle nails the laughs but overflows with empathy, making the audience uncomfortable in a good way.

Bolstered by a couple of original musical numbers that lay out Coyle's struggles to process others' viewpoints, this is the perfect work for urban liberals who desperately try to be self-aware and consider opposing political views, but get mired in their own privilege. I can't count the number of times I elbowed my friend in the audience as if to say, we just talked about this the other day. We both grew up in small towns in states depicted in the play, amongst actual versions of Hoyle's characters, but we now find ourselves brunching in that "liberal bubble".

The show first premiered in 2010, politically a much different environment than today. Instead of being as of-the-moment as it once was, it is eerie foreshadowing that helps explain how we've arrived at this point in history. A new, ten-minute, post-Trump epilogue adds context and brings it up to the minute. For my friend and me, the varying voices in THE REAL AMERICANS are painfully (but comically) accurate and need to be heard by as many people as possible, across the political and socioeconomic spectrum. It wouldn't surprise me if most everyone else in Washington who sees it feels similarly.

Running time: approximately 1 hour 20 minutes with no intermission.

Mosaic Theater Company of DC presents THE REAL AMERICANS through December 22, 2017, at Atlas Performing Arts Center, Lab II, 1333 H Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. Tickets can be purchased at www.mosaictheater.org or by calling (202) 399-7993.

Photo: Dan Hoyle, courtesy of Mosaic Theater Company of DC.

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