AMERICAN DREAMS (WAS DEMOCRACY JUST A DREAM?) from the San Francisco Mime Troupe

Rating: 5

Click here for the interview with Andre Amarotico.

The San Francisco Mime Troupe once again comes through with a thought-provoking musical comedy about the state of the nation with AMERICAN DREAMS (WAS DEMOCRACY JUST A DREAM?). The tripartite focus is on what the fallout will be from the 2024 election, and what is happening now to pro-Palestinian protesters on our nation’s campuses, with a reminder about the evils of AI. Using the trope of a dream within a dream, and a running joke about not all dreams being of the Martin Luther King, Jr. variety, alternate universes extrapolate outcomes that only a few years ago would have seemed far-fetched. And that is this production’s strength. The immediacy is for all members of the audience equally, unlike previous productions that traded in homelessness, or the pollution dumped in our waters. The futures (and pasts) posited here aren’t a stretch, and playing them for laughs somehow makes them more, not less, sinister. The idea of a neo-Brown Shirt demanding to see a character’s identification papers for no other reason than he can, and will as a means of intimidation, has the whiff of inevitability about it, coupled as it is with recent Supreme Court rulings and the promise from the Great Orange Cheeto that, if elected, he will be a dictator, if only on Day One.

Our protagonists are accountant Gabriel (playwright Michael Gene Sullivan), a black man impatient with liberal promises and seduced to the MAGA side by his laid-off coworker, Harold (Andre Amarotico), much to the consternation of his granddaughter, Paine (as in Thomas, no doubt, and played by Mikki Johnson), a college history professor making ends meet by driving for Uber, dubbed here Uber Alles.

The iterations of possible outcomes include a MAGA win followed in short order by a new form of law enforcement on the street; Paine losing her job for joining the pro-Palestinian protest on campus, which threatens the schools funding per Dean Quisling (a potent reference from World War II and also played by Sullivan); and Paine’s boyfriend, Oliver (Amarotico) unwittingly unleashing a sentient AI on the world by suggesting it to his boss, Silicon Valley tech titan, Meliae Higgins (Lizzie Calogero who does double-duty as one of Paine’s students).

In true commedia dell’arte, the acting is broad, and the message deliberately provocative. There are easy targets, such as the vainglorious Higgins reduced to hiding in back alleys after her creation runs amok, and Quisling breaking down the financial realities of keeping a school afloat these days that come off as cowardly excuses. There are the expected speeches by Paine’s student fervently listing the number of dead in the Israel-Hamas War (referred to as the Gaza conflict and corrected by Paine as being about Palestine), and Paine’s arguments to her grandfather to not give up on progress even if it’s currently stymied.

Attendees may safely be considered more on the left than the right of the political spectrum, thereby being more than agreeable to the positions taken by Paine when arguing with her grandfather, but the puckish swipe at vegans is unexpected, and delightful in its execution. One of the great delights in each SFMTA production is that no matter how sure you are that you are on the right side of history, there will be something to shake you up, and rightly so. Also, Kudos to the creative effort that rendered the kale pizza and the vegan roast, and the non-chocolate German chocolate cake.

 

Another of the great delights is the way the actors slip in and out of different characters and costumes so quickly and with such expertise. In particular this year, the range shown by Calogero is striking, dancing between an

idealistic college student and a soul-deficient tech tycoon who learns too late that technology is more than just a means to an end. While Sullivan is worthy of a shout-out for embodying everything we should fear about AI, Johnson for being the emotional heart of the piece, and Amarotico for wielding a Billy club and that ci-mentioned vegan roast with equal aplomb while invoking Hathor throughout.

 

Each and every one of them also does a fine job of belting out the catchy songs by Daniel Savio that, as always, bounce along while making their points, and the whole is elevated by the dynamic direction from Velina Brown on a set that doesn’t let its small size prevent it from depicting a surprising number of locations.

AMERICAN DREAMS from the San Francisco Mime Troupe plays through Labor Day at various outdoor venues in the San Francisco Bay Area. Admission free. Indoor performance at Z Space on July 16, ticket $20.  SFMT.org for the full schedule.

All photos @Andrea Chase