Akvavit’s“Red and Green” looks at the confounding world of international relations. Through numb, disjointed scenes we learn that in diplomacy, no good deed goes unpunished.
Four diplomats come untethered in volatile Kathmandu; aid projects they manage have become cruel and ultimately fatal farces. Ambassador Manne (Wm Bullion) is a sexual predator, indifferent to the locals; Petra (Breahan Eve Pautsch) is a mix of activism and condescension; Newbies Morten (Matthew Isler) and Kristine (Kirstin Franklin) slowly lose their innocence and footing. Manne’s wife Lilli (Mary Jo Bolduc), the best illustration of the metaphor, wanders through unfamiliar landscapes and memory fragments, victim of an embolism.
Danish playwright Astrid Saalbach’s non-linear storytelling sharply communicates the paralysis and confusion of cultural deprivation. The characters’ erratic behavior is in counterpoint to the humorous plodding of local servants (Odie Escondo, Ramona Kywe) who know their lives won’t change, regardless of what the foreigners do. (Lisa Buscani)
Akvavit Theatre at the Raven Theatre, 6157 North Clark, (800)838-3006. Through October 9.
Dueling in Dystopia: A Review of "Last Hermanos" at A Red Orchid Theatre Two Mexican American brothers who've grown up separately in the United States are together on the run, hoping to make it across the border to Mexico and escape the unfriendly confines that our country has become in a not-too-distant dystopian future.
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