Review: F-ING A at Shaking The Tree

It takes some time to get oriented in f-ing A, Suzan-Lori Parks' dark, darkly funny, and too-close-to-reality fable play now running at Shaking the Tree. As with all experiences at Shaking the Tree, this one starts as soon as you walk into the theatre, which is hung with blood-stained fabric in various configurations, from t-shirts to sausages. Who exactly are these bleeding creatures?

The play begins with Hester (Josie Seid), an abortionist, cleaning the blood off of her tools. She's visited by her friend, Canary Mary (Kayla Hanson), a sex worker who is currently the mistress of the town's mayor. When the women talk about the specifics of their respective trades, they speak in a different language.

Hester occupies an in-between place in this society - relegated to the fringe, but at the same time recognized as providing an essential service. Abortion is not illegal, but still she works out of her home under the cover of night. Like Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter, she must wear an always-visible letter A. However, unlike her namesake, this Hester's A is not sewn onto her clothing, but branded on her chest in a wound that never quite heals.

Then we meet The Mayor (Jonathan Cullen) and his wife, The First Lady (Briana Ratterman Trevithick), and reality bends a little bit more. While The First Lady describes the town as a small, insignificant town in a small, insignificant country, The Mayor seems to think he's been divinely appointed and that his dynasty will continue with his son, his son's son, and so on. The problem is that he doesn't have a son - The First Lady has not yet managed to conceive, which threatens to bring the whole (imaginary?) empire tumbling down.

The true nature of the town - and the play - begins to become clear when Hester makes a visit to the Freedom Fund, where she makes a deposit of a gold coin toward securing her son, Boy's, freedom. He was imprisoned 30 years ago when he was just a kid for stealing food from a rich family whose house Hester used to clean. During the visit, Hester learns that the price of his freedom has gone up. You get the feeling it's not the first time.

Scene change to a pub, where three bounty hunters (Clifton Holznagel, Samson Syharath, and Gerrin Mitchell) brag about their recent kill and discuss how they will torture their next target - a prisoner, nicknamed "Monster," who has recently escaped (shout out to Anthony Michael Shepard for his touching performance).

The real turning point comes when the local butcher (John San Nicolas) recites a comically long litany of all of the things that can land you in prison. They range from the expected, like murder, to the absurd, including standing on one leg in a two-leg zone. There are also quite a few morally questionable things that are acceptable as long as you have a permit.

This is when I started to understand what the play is about - the impossibility of living in a society where so much of your life is determined by things that are completely out of your control. How can you even walk down the street if standing on one leg is equivalent to murder? How can you have any hope at all when the thing that you value most in life will always cost just slightly more than you can afford? Ultimately, f-ing A is about how monsters of all kinds are made and the many forms butchery can take.

This production, directed by Samantha Van Der Merwe, leans hard into the weird and unsettling. The acting is melodramatic, which makes it border on the surreal, but at the same time it's a touch too close to reality for comfort (have you seen some of the laws being passed around the country?). It's simultaneously funny and horrific. The play includes original music, which is often accompanied by an accordion - an instrument whose inherent playfulness is in stark contrast to the brutality of the lyrics. There's quite a lot of blood. So...a typical day at Shaking the Tree?

I've written this before, but the reason I think Shaking the Tree is the most interesting theatre in Portland is because they don't let you off the hook, ever, not for a single moment. As soon as you enter the theatre, you're in it without a safety net. This is a tough play. It deals with uncomfortable situations and the characters do unspeakable things. It takes you into the darkest parts of human nature and doesn't give you a path back out, and it forces you to think about what you would do in these situations, where every choice is a bad one. And because of that, it's must-see theatre.

f-ing A runs through November 5. More details and tickets here.