The San Francisco Mime Troupe opened its 51st season in Dolores Park this weekend, and once more the ghosts returned. “I seen this one 20 times,” said Ripped Van Winkle. “Never tire of it.” I tell him this is a new play, the first time it’s been performed. “Cool,” he says before drifting off again.
Rip can be forgiven for thinking he’s seen this show before. The Troupe’s 2010 offering, “Posibilidad, or Death of the Worker,” harks back to the Troupe’s days of Socialist Realism, as workers are called upon to throw off the chains of false consciousness and realize they don’t need their capitalist bosses.
In “Posibilidad,” workers who sew labels on organic hemp clothes made in China accidentally occupy their factory after the owners announce the work will be shipped overseas. It turns out one of the workers took part in the Popular Assembly movement that erupted without warning out of Argentina’s sudden and near-total political-economic collapse in 2001. One of the movement’s tactics was to occupy and run factories that the owner had abandoned or was selling off piece by piece.
What starts off with energy and wit goes south when the action moves to Argentina. Despite the biggest laughs in the show, the Argentina segments drag, and they pull the whole play down. The music, which can usually be counted on to save a show, stumbles badly, slowing the action even more. What promises intrigue delivers ambiguity, and what U.S. workers are supposed learn from their Argentine counterparts is never clear, as the hemp weavers have occupied their workplace by the time they hear about the Argentine experience.
The play pits melodramatic soap operas and highly contentious soccer games against the real-life drama of social struggle. Unfortunately, the soap operas and soccer games are far more entertaining. For example, we are taken through a series of worker collective meetings that, although highly stylized, nonetheless reflect the tedium that drains such experiments. True, but good political points sometimes make lousy art.
It was something of a surprise to see the Troupe revert to its old style after the success it had last year with a more open, playful and metaphorical genre. Where “Too Big To Fail” seemed to release the actors, taking advantage of their natural talents and proclivities, “Posibilidad” ties them in knots. Maybe it’s just a matter of working with the script more, because the actors seemed oddly out of touch with what was happening on stage, let alone in Argentina; more concerned with their Spanish accent than what they were actually saying (of course, that might be considered an Argentine trait).
The Popular Assembly movement in Argentina was initially a revolutionary carnival that released an enormous amount of social energy among workers, but especially among the unemployed and working-class youth. Through a variety of actions, they put the question of power in Argentina, its distribution and prerogatives, on the table for a short time. The energy of that moment propelled the worker occupations in Argentina, but it’s that energy that was conspicuously missing in Dolores Park.
“Posibilidad” has possibilities, but the Troupe would profit from a deeper understanding of the Argentine social explosion of 2001 and its aftermath. More important (this is theater, after all), the members of the Troupe have to enjoy themselves, or pretend they do. Living in the Mission, we may be better off than most in the country, but even here we feel the effects of long-term unemployment and the slashing of public services. It’s nothing to laugh about.
Which is why we are counting on the Mime Troupe to get it together and leave us laughing. Let go. Have some fun. Things are bad enough without a dreary, wandering performance that can only wring a cynical smile from a blind, dead and politically conservative Argentine poet.
Schedule
Today: Dolores Park, 2 p.m. (music at 1:30)
Next performance: Glen Park
Sat., July 10, 2 p.m. (music at 1:30)
FULL SKED HERE.