YELLOWJACKETS

YELLOWJACKETS: World Premiere. Written by Itamar Moses / Directed by Tony Taccone Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison Street @ Shattuck, Downtown Berkeley, California. 510.647.2949 – toll-free 888-4-BRT-Tix – www.berkeleyrep.org. September 9 – October 12, 2008.

THIS IS A PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL. NONE SPEAK ENGLISH!

One might wonder how much of “Yellow Jackets” is Itamar Moses and how much is Tony Taccone. Taccone has a legendary reputation for developing and directing controversial, stimulating new material and this play, commissioned by Berkeley Rep, is of that ilk. Under Taccone’s masterful guidance the 4 ½ hour 2007 work-shop has been pared to 2 ½ hours and he has kept many of the original actors. Moses, a local product, age 30, who now lives in Brooklyn, has more than a modicum of success Off-Broadway and in regional theaters. He was recently named playwright-in-residence at San Diego’s Old Globe.

The play is set in 1994 at Berkeley High School at the time Moses, a junior, was the editor of the boycotted student newspaper called “The Jacket” and the school’s sports teams are the “Yellow Jackets”, hence the title. Anyone familiar with the wasps of that name is aware they deliver a terrible sting. In this sprawling staged production, the stings mingle with sharp vicious bites and jabs that create tension reflective of emotional and physical abuse encountered in multicultural high schools during the fledging years of racial integration.

It is a personal journal of the author’s experiences and a moving collage of Berkeley High that was one of the first voluntarily to embrace racial integration. There is some universality to the conflicts presented but it is a primarily a microcosm of Berkeley, California in general with Richmond, an improvised community of Blacks, to the North and white, affluent Piedmont to the South. Although the characters have specific traits, Moses insists they are composites of his classmates.

From the opening scene, Taccone and Moses let it be known that we in store for conflict staging a violent rumble amid shouts and strobe lights on an open set dominated by a claustrophobic actual ten foot iron fence stretching across the entire thrust stage. Sadly, this confrontation involves blacks versus blacks. The personal conflicts unfold in multiple short scenes starting with Hispanic Guillem (Brian Rivera) terrorizing white milk toast Trevor (Craig Piaget). This recurring theme of personal conflict is juxtaposed with Ethnic animosity as the scale of disillusionment mounts. The11 actors perform 23 roles as they double as students and teachers.

Avi (Ben Freeman), as the protagonist representing author Moses, is the editor of “The Jacket” that published a front page story about the inequality of “tracking” considered racists by teacher Ms. Robbins (Jahmela Biggs) who orders a boycott of the paper. (Tracking, the process where students are selected for specialized classes, is created especially for those who are college bound. One student refers to tracking as “A means of keeping the underprivileged available for menial jobs.” ) Hispanic teacher Mr. Behzad (Brian Riveria) adds fuel to the fire when the paper fails to give adequate space to an upcoming Cinco de Mayo pageant. Further animosity develops when the administration “closes” the campus and all students must have ID cards. Attempts at reconciliation between individuals, students versus administration and divergent Ethnic groups are the thread that gives the play muscle. You get the impression in later scenes in the second act, Moses is playing the game of “My Dad, is better than your dad” when Jew Avi (Ben Freeman) and Hispanic Alexa (Amaya Alonso Hallifax) argue which ethnic group suffered more throughout history. By plays’ end we are forced to refocus our thoughts about race and ethnicity and sadly recognize the barb, “This is a Public High School. No one speaks English.”

With the exception that the speech of Jahmela Biggs as teacher Ms. Robbins is unintelligible, there is not a weak member of the cast. Brilliant performances (in alphabetical order) are turned in by Shoresh Alaudini as Damian, Alex Curtis as Ryan and Mr. Franks, Ben Freeman as Avi, Amaya Alonso Hallifax as Alexa, and exceptional Craig Piaget as Trevor and Mr. Terrence. Piaget wrings tears from your eyes in the final scene of act one when he relives the terror and abuse he is forced to endure.

Production and Cast: Designed by Annie Smart (sets), Meg Neville (costumes), Alexander V. Nichols (lights), Obadiah Eaves (sound), and Steve Rankin (fight choreography). Starring Shoresh Alaudini, Jahmela Biggs, Alex Curtis, Ben Freeman, Lance Gardner, Amaya Alonso, Hallifax, Kevin Hsieh, Adrienne Papp, Craig Piaget, Brian Rivera, and Erika Salazar.
Courtesy of TheatreWorld Internet Magazine