Review: _Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992_

[jducoeur]

This week's highlight was one of our occasional outings to the American Repertory Theater (ART). As usual, we were seeing a show in previews -- this month's selection is Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992. Let's talk about it.

tl;dr -- a brilliant reminder of a past but very familiar time. See it.

Twilight was written in the wake of the Rodney King beating, and the ensuing riots, and is entirely about them. So there is a big content warning here: this is a story very much about violence, both the police and mob sorts, and the results of all of that. There is no violence on-stage per se, but the relevant films are shown on-screen during the show.

(For those who weren't around at the time: Rodney King was essentially the George Floyd of the 90's, and it is sad how strongly 2020 echoed 1992. It was the first instance of racist police brutality being captured on home video and widely broadcast around the country, and hit the US hard. The most conspicuous difference between then and now was that the officers back then were acquitted, and Los Angeles erupted in a riot of epic proportions. It was a bad time all around.)

This show is more or less a revival. In late '92, Anna Deavere Smith conducted hundreds of interviews of people in and around these events -- everybody from King's relatives and the cops involved to rioters to bystanders. She wove those interviews into what is the closest thing the stage has to a documentary, composed entirely of quotes from those interviews.

The original production in '93 was a one-woman show, with her playing all the parts, and I have no doubt that it was remarkable. This revival has a diverse cast of five actors, and I suspect is better for it: the choices of which actors play which roles echo strongly in the story, because this is so very much a story of society and race. It was not only a tale of white cops beating up a black motorist -- the Latino community also got sucked into the riots, and the Korean community found themselves feeling victimized, trapped in the middle of all these forces, with many of their local shops under siege.

All of those voices are represented, and the show wisely doesn't pass any easy or pat judgements. Almost everyone comes across as at least somewhat sympathetic, getting to tell the story from their own point of view. (With the extremely notable exception of LA Police Chief Darryl Gates, who comes across as the very slimiest sort of politician. And the cluelessness and self-centeredness of a couple of the white bystanders is sometimes cringe-inducing, and at times horribly hilarious.)

Those moments of humor help the story avoid being too bleak, an important contrast to some other accounts that are just heart-breaking. The tone intentionally varies, and there are some fascinating experiments with the setting -- for example, placing several of the characters in an entirely fictional dinner party. (Still continuing to be scripted entirely in their quotes -- just contrasting them as back-and-forth debate over the table.)

This helps keep the whole thing a lot more interesting than your average documentary, as does the structure of the show, which follows theme more than strict chronology. Be prepared to learn a lot as you go, but also be prepared for some aspects to be referred to long before they get explained. For example, I had forgotten about Reginald Denny, whose assault is a significant subplot on several levels, speaking to American racism and the way all of this was perceived.

The production is generally brilliant -- excellent direction and absolutely stellar acting. Francis Jue particularly stands out, flipping between characters (many cross-gender) and accents fluidly, as does Elena Hurst, but all five actors are a delight. Wesley T. Jones plays most of the black rioters - but then does a delightful job as an utterly snide and self-righteous Charlton Heston, using this as an educational moment for why everyone should have a shotgun. Sets are intentionally stripped-down and simple, as are the costumes, to help a story that shifts viewpoints every couple of minutes. (And in some sections every few seconds.)

It is showing at the ART for several more weeks. I highly recommend it: despite being a couple of hours long it never drags, and it is remarkably absorbing -- human and real in a way you don't often see on stage. They only briefly call out to the events of 2020, but the show as a whole is a reminder of the way that the greatest tragedies quickly turn into "just history" unless we internalize them and act on them. It's a lesson worth taking in.