Stage: Palestine, New Mexico

Mark Taper Forum

Los Angeles

(213) 628-2772

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“The deserts of the Middle East and the Southwestern United States are far apart in every sense,” said Charles McNulty in the Los Angeles Times. But playwright Richard Montoya “contrives a cultural denominator” between the two regions in this ambitious new play, performed by Latino theater troupe Culture Clash. A young Army captain named Catherine Siler (Kirsten Potter), fresh from a tour in Afghanistan, journeys to a Native American reservation to deliver a message to the father of a young private who died on her watch. Though she’s clearly “not in Afghanistan anymore,” she imagines mosques in place of mesas. When she hears a Muslim call to prayer wafting over the New Mexican sands, it becomes clear that “all geographic bets are off.”

Siler’s visions translate into some “visually enthralling scenes,” said Les Spindle in Back Stage. Yet director Lisa Peterson has trouble matching the play’s striking look with any sort of “stimulating cerebral experience.” The play contains kernels of several interesting ideas. When Siler first goes to the reservation, she’s troubled by certain mysterious circumstances surrounding her comrade’s death and is seeking answers. Yet what she uncovers are secrets about the origins of Native American tribal cultures (the play’s title hints at her discoveries). The linking of disparate cultures provides an interesting framework, but Montoya’s “flawed script” raises questions it doesn’t answer. Palestine is an interesting trip, but one that leaves audiences stranded.