‘Culture Clash in Americca’
The L.A.-based Culture Clash comedy trio (Richard Montoya, Ricardo Salinas and Herbert Siguenza) is back and up to its old tricks: convincing us that we are all aliens (or insiders; it’s all in the perspective) and here together, and we may as well get along as make life difficult for ourselves.
They’ve been doing this for a decade, and they’ve gotten pretty damned good at it; this is their sixth engagement at San Diego Repertory Theatre. Culture Clash in Americca plays through March 7.
Based on interviews with people in L.A., San Diego, San Francisco, New York, Miami and the nation’s capital, the trio has written skits about their subjects’ lives and attitudes. They try to localize in each place they play; here there are mentions of La Jolla, Sea World, Hillcrest, even Roger Hedgecock.
One of the funniest bits features Salinas demonstrating how to tell different Latino groups apart on the dance floor. It’s all in the way they dance salsa: Mexicans flapping their arms “like little chickens,” Cubans “as though Santeria spirits flow through them;” Puerto Ricans “suave with a little attitude.”
But mostly, the idea is to show and exult in the diversity of the U.S. population. Montoya plays a Boston Catholic who confronts the priest who molested him and many others, finally forgiving him; a Vietnam vet who lives in Tijuana because he sees the U.S. in decline; a Muslim father who notes that “my kids worship Allah and Nike.”
There’s a fair amount of drag action as well, Siguenza and Salinas playing “under the transsexual umbrella;” Montoya and Salinas playing a pair of aging female hippies (the improv caused Montoya to forget his next line).
It’s a wild and enjoyable ride, underlined with the seriousness of a Palestinian cabbie who reports that after 9/11 some white Americans came to the mosque to pray with them, and “that’s America to me.” The show is capped with the final image of a Marine’s letter home (“I’m coming home today”), followed by a flag-draped casket.
Hurry; this show closes March 7.
Culture Clash in Americca plays through March 7, 2010 at San Diego Repertory Theatre. Shows Wednesday and Sunday at 7 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m.; matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. For tickets call (619) 544-1000 or visit www.sdrep.org.
Ric Salinas, Herbert Siguenza, Richard Montoya of Culture Clash. Photo by John Maldonado.
