When art speaks truth, it hurts, and it never hurts so much as in Mark Jackson’s stylish new play The Forest War, which runs through January 14 at the Shotgun Players’ Ashby Stage in Berkeley.
Written and directed with imaginative flair, The Forest War comes in the form of Japanese Kabuki theater, from the choreographed stylized stage movements and tableaux, to Valera Coble’s beautifully-textured elaborate costumes, to Jackson’s formalized, rhythmic dialogue. It’s a classic jidai geki, or Japanese period drama, addressing themes that are timeless and in this case, all too familiar.
The Forest War of the title has been prosecuted by the aging Grand Lord Karug, played by Drew Anderson, and after a decade, the long battles have decimated the country and demoralized its citizens. In theory, the war has been won, and Karug decides to pass the leadership to the peaceable Lord Kulan (Cassidy Brown) instead of his belligerent son, Lord Kain (Kevin Clarke). Thus the stage is set for your classic father/son power struggle. Read into it what you will.
President Bush — sorry, I mean, Lord Kain — believes that the battle for the Great Oil Fields — sorry, the Great Forest — is far from finished, and he angrily plots against the peace-loving Bill Clinton — that is, Lord Kulan who has set about rebuilding the country, improving infrastructure and even — horrors! — appointing a local medicine woman (read Jocelyn Elders) and taking political counsel from his wife, Lady Ema, or if you like, Hillary.
Would you be surprised to learn that Lord Kulan’s downfall is a sexual peccadillo with a young courtesan, and that the sword of state passes to Lord Kain, who invents the fiction that their enemies have risen again and restarts The Forest War with the help of General Mau Tant, i.e. Military-Industrial Complex?