Review: Dystopian ‘Frontieres Sans Frontieres' by Theatre Y raises provocative questions

Chicago Tribune

a day ago

In the opening scene of 'Frontieres Sans Frontieres' at Theatre Y, three orphans play together in a sort of dystopian Neverland, a vision of how the fantastical home of Peter Pan and the Lost Boys might look if located in a postindustrial wasteland. Broken-down construction equipment and various scavenged items form a makeshift shelter for this disparate trio of stateless individuals who have united as a little family despite their linguistic and cultural differences. As the eldest, a young teen named Win (Tania Gillian Ramirez), leads Noon (Roesha 'Ro' Townsel) and Pan (Carrington Thornton) in a game of charades meets 'Simon Says,' the children's lively antics are underscored by a wariness beyond their years and an ominous sense of danger.
So begins Phillip Howze's experimental, often confounding play that draws on theatrical traditions of absurdism, burlesque and commedia dell'arte to satirize a slew of Western interlopers, from humanitarian nonprofits to predatory capitalists. Directed by Kezia Waters, who also designed the set, this Chicago premiere raises provocative questions but ultimately feels hazy in its exploration of anticolonial themes.
Win regularly encourages Noon and Pan to practice their English, a language the three kids only have a slight grasp of, so it seems serendipitous when an idealistic young English teacher, Thom (Cameron Austin Brown), shows up one day. After wheedling some cash from him, while Noon rifles through his backpack, Win convinces him to stay and teach some lessons. This well-meaning stranger is the first in a string of intruders who range from the ridiculous to the sinister; Terreon Collins plays a magazine correspondent on a tone-deaf quest for the perfect combat photo, and later, an intoxicated militia fighter. In the role of a comically unhinged doctor from the World Health Organization, Nadia Pillay wields an oversized syringe and scatters a barrage of pharmaceutical samples at the bewildered children.
Pillay also performs an exaggerated send-up of a B-list actress in search of a little local flavor and a break from her work as a humanitarian ambassador, while Jo JB Schaffer gives a creepy turn as a developer looking to capitalize on a vulnerable region's resources. In another scene, Pillay and Schaffer team up as a clown and mime duo from a nonprofit called 'Clowns from Across Bounds,' espousing grandiose visions of what performance art can accomplish in this 'savage land' before being shot dead by the drunk soldier. The goofy name of this nonprofit and the title of the play itself both riff on the prominent medical charity Doctors Without Borders, or Médecins Sans Frontières, as it's known internationally.
Through this bizarre mix of visitors, who all speak English and are more economically secure than the children, Howze paints the Anglosphere's interference in global affairs with a broad brush, portraying idealistic philanthropists and greedy developers alike as tools of colonialism. While both are fair subjects for criticism, Howze misses an opportunity for sharper, more specific satire by flattening the outsiders into a conglomerate threat.
'Frontieres Sans Frontieres' shares some thematic and tonal similarities with Jackie Sibblies Drury's 'We Are Proud to Present,' the first play Theatre Y produced in its permanent North Lawndale venue in 2023. However, Howze's anticolonial satire is even more stylized and abstract, to the extent that I sometimes lost the thread of what the playwright is trying to say. This was especially true in an extended scene toward the end featuring Noon, who is separated from the other orphans and presumably taken to America. Wearing garish white makeup and a costume inspired by the Statue of Liberty, with eerie lighting from cell phone flashlights, Noon gives a charismatic speech that seems to present her as a model of assimilation. (Nia Vines is the costume designer and Ryan Burkle is the lighting designer.) Win reacts with horror and grief to this development, realizing too late that the children have lost their own identities, languages and cultures.
Fans of theater that's a bit outside the box, or refuses to acknowledge a box altogether, will likely find this production worth their time. It also should be right in the wheelhouse of those who enjoy the more avant-garde works of the annual Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival; there's even a scene featuring a puppet (credited as Discopuppet) as a radio host. Waters' imaginative staging and the cast's committed performances bring to life Howze's strange world — which, by the way, is always referred to as 'Here.' Make of that what you will, the playwright seems to say, about the setting and the play as a whole.Review: 'Frontieres Sans Frontieres' (2.5 stars)
When: Through Aug. 24
Where: Theatre Y, 3611 W. Cermak
Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Tickets: Free or pay what you want at theatre-y.com