Review: SLEEPING GIANT at The Road Theatre Company
Want to know what the world is about to look like? Here it is.
By the time we got to Scene 4 in Steve Yockey’s new play, SLEEPING GIANT, currently at the Road Theatre, NOHO, it was clear I was witnessing more than a metaphor about the continuing evolution of MAGA. Although, I admit, a momentary mental blip almost convinced me I was not seeing clearly, and nearly derailed the epiphany. It became much too blatant, though, to ignore. And it was all too frightening.
Regardless of the slightly Swiss-cheese writing at the very beginning and (fairly) disproportionate misdirection of the play, Yockey’s point of view is crystal clear. So are the threats, the violence, the passive acceptance of all that is not right and the happily active kissing of the ring of authoritarianism, by the masses.
Nothing in SLEEPING GIANT is subtle. It is all written in non-literal application, symbolic of something “else”. Yet this play isn’t particularly abstract, either. It’s quite in your face. Yockey’s writing seems to span the divide of the fantastical, the sensational, the cult-ish and the sensical all at once in his new work. And the only way to really understand it, is to experience it. (Yes, this is a “just go see the show” plug!). Even though, in every way, in real life, we all, already are.
When a firework-filled marriage proposal goes very wrong, the accompanying explosions wake up something very old that has been sleeping in the nearby lake for thousands of years. What follows are intimate, darkly comic and sometimes startling vignettes about the lengths people go to when they desperately want to believe in something.
What’s terrifying is the ease with which everyone at the Lake falls under its spell. The ease in which people just follow along. The “belief” that they can now “belong” and be “powerful”, when really, they are being controlled by an entity that merely wants them under its thumb. And an entity whose lust can never be satiated. (Sound familiar?)
If they don’t “join” they’re quite literally killed. And as more followers continue to do so, dancing and sacrificing themselves to the entity in the Lake, the body of water continues to expand is physical reach. It is clear, no one will be safe. In the end, the Lake will reach them and they will be forced to comply with the bloody thirst of its god.
SLEEPING GIANT would almost be “too clever by half” if it weren’t for its alarming truth. Couched in a sort of blind innocence, the script nevertheless hits like a brick in the gooey center of this 90-minute exploration.
RECOMMENDED
Production details
Now Playing Until March 2, 2025
Friday and Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 2pm
SLEEPING GIANT
A West Coast Premiere
Written by Steve Yockey
Directed by Ann Hearn Tobolowski
Cast:
The Naif: Jackie Misaye
The Raconteur: Eric Patrick Harper
The Messenger: Justin Lawrence Barnes
The Convert: Andrea Flowers
Alternates:
The Naif: Bebe Katsenes
The Raconteur: Billy Baker
The Messenger: Dor Gvirtsman
The Convert: Destinee Stewart
The Design Team for SLEEPING GIANT is as follows: Scenic Design by Katrina Coulourides; Lighting Design by Derrick McDaniel; Projection Design by Ben Rock; Sound Design by David B. Marling; Costume Design by Mylette Nora; Properties Design by Scottie Neil. Production Stage Manager is Maurie Gonzalez. Produced by Danna Hyams and Taylor Gilbert.
Photo Credit: Brian Graves. Justin Lawrence Barnes stars in the Road Theatre Company’s West Coast Premiere of “SLEEPING GIANT” by Steve Yockey, directed by Ann Hearn Tobolowsky and now playing at the Road Theatre in North Hollywood.
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