For Mohawk clan chief Gary, food tells the story of survival.
The trick to his legendary corn soup is letting the corn “rot long enough that it becomes good for you again.” His monologue, delivered in a “kiss the chef” apron with a warmth as inviting as the smell of a home-cooked meal, opens “Pure Native,” a show that finds comfort in rot, which plays at Geva Theatre through May 11.
Presented in association with the local Friends of Ganondagan and Native Voices, a west coast-based theatre company focused on new play development, “Pure Native” is a well-crafted script by Tuscarora playwright Vickie Ramirez. The play premiered in 2019 in Los Angeles under the direction of the former Native Voices artistic director Randy Reinholz, who also directs this east coast premiere at Geva. This production feels like a homecoming, as the play is set in upstate New York and features Haudenosaunee characters.
“Pure Native” centers two married couples: Gary (Jake Waid) and his social worker wife Connie (Tanis Parenteau); and her brother Art (Derek Garza) and his pregnant-with-their-second-child wife Karen (Geva artist-in-residence DeLanna Studi, creator of last season’s “And So We Walked: An Artist’s Journey Along the Trail of Tears”).
The couples’ loyalty to each other — and to their land — is shaken up when an old friend and Connie’s former flame, Brewster (Kalani Queypo), returns to the reservation for the first time since leaving for New York City 10 years earlier. He arrives in a Mercedes rental, wearing a new suit and an Apple watch, with a controversial proposition: the international food company he works for wants to build a bottled water factory along the river, which he says would be owned and staffed by their community.
It would be easy for a play about pure nature versus Pure Native, Inc. to fall into a melodrama with an obvious good guy and bad guy, but Ramirez’s script resists these binaries. All five characters are passionate about their land and its people, but differ in their ideas of how to best honor their traditions. Yes, soulless corporations are bad, but they’re here, so what next? How can people adapt and survive in the face of oppression and greed?
The play allows each character to be right, even when they’re making opposing claims. Or at least, the play allows each character to sound right. The details of the corporation deal are sometimes unclear, so it’s hard to tell if Brewster is cunning or merely deluded in his belief that he can steer the deal to be ultimately profitable for the community.
The fate of the “Pure Native” water bottle factory often takes a backdrop to the interpersonal relationships of the characters arguing about it. Connie and Art are still hurt by Brewster’s 10-year absence. During that time, Connie went from dreaming about having six kids with Brewster to hiding her birth control from her doting husband Gary.
Despite occasionally clunky exposition, Ramirez’s script is smart and engaging, carefully balancing the political and personal with the dramatic and comedic. The play doesn’t shy away from the impact of traumas like alcoholism and suicide, but also finds levity through violence, such as a goofy nerf gun war and Connie’s mock enactment of a hypothetical death.
The river is the vital heart of the play, made clear through the stunning set design by Troy Hourie. Gary and Connie’s kitchen is marked by an oven, table and counter, while Karen and Art’s living room consists of a couch and scattered toys. These domestic spaces blend into the rolling hills, towering trees and a fragile canopy of sewn purple, blue and green fabric that snake around the front of the stage.
Water is always present under Reinholz’s thoughtful direction, from the blues and greens of Emma Deane’s lighting design to the rush of the rain and river in the sound design by Ed Littlefield/Shaakindustóow. The interstitial music alternates between flute and drum instrumentals and a more contemporary Indigenous funk. The costume design by Asa Benally is suitable, if a bit on the nose: Connie sports a “land back” t-shirt for her protests, while lacrosse-loving Art wears Haudenosaunee Nationals merch.
“Pure Native” balances existential threats with the jealousies and joy that come with day-to-day survival. Though the characters are haunted by their past, the issues in the play are painfully present. Across the street from Geva moments before the Saturday matinee, drumming and chanting could be heard from a protest against authoritarianism. Speakers in Martin Luther King, Jr. Park talked about surviving in the face of an administration that aims to, among other threats, roll back environmental protections and erase Indigenous histories.
Connie, who carries a “water is life” sign in act two, would have fit right in.
“Pure Native” runs through May 11 at Geva Theatre. More tickets and information here.
Katherine Varga is a contributor to CITY.
This article appears in Dec 1-31, 2024.
